Confessions of a Troubled Yooyuball Player
by Windfox
Summary: A series of short stories featuring different players in the second Altador Cup.  Chapter Twelve: Stealth mission time! Elon?  Elon!  ELOOOOOOON!
1. Stereotypes

**This is going to be a series of mini stories about the players of the Altador Cup. TNT gives a basic background for all the teams**, **and I thought it would be fun to expand on all of the characters. The only problem is that keeping all of the characters and their positions straight might be a bit confusing, since there are 16 teams of 5. I try to include the position and team of every character mentioned, but please tell me if it is still difficult to keep everyone straight. On with the story!  
**

* * *

**June 4th**

To say expectations were high for the match would be an understatement. One would think that the biggest match in the first day would be the Krawk Island vs. Altador match; or the sure stomping that Shenkuu was sure to receive from last year's champions, the Haunted Woods.

But almost every fan of Yooyuball seemed to be concerned with only one match: Faerieland vs. Darigan Citadel.

Faerieland had been destroyed by Mystery Island last year in the first round, and Darigan had made it to the championship match, even after playing against some of the hardest teams in the league. It didn't take a genius to know who was the overwhelming favorite to win the upcoming match, and yet it was still possibly the most anticipated.

It boggled Valtonous Rea's mind. As she sat in her room, she pondered the situation. While she was glad that Faerieland had switched back to a 2-2 pattern, giving her more cover to work as goalie, she didn't see how it would help them against Darigan in the slightest. Provided Kakoni Worrill and Babolino, Faerieland's two forwards, could even get the ball away from Darigan's solid offense, and get past their star defensive players, they still had to deal with Reshar Collifey, Darigan's new goalkeeper.

Last year, Darigan's Achilles' heel had been Mungo Lifler, the previous goalie. He was quite possibly the only goalie in the circuit slower than Rea, but without her skill or craftiness. After what had been dubbed the "Lifler Maneuver", where he scored on his own goal, giving Haunted Woods the winning point, his days on the team were numbered. Now that he was gone, Darigan was going to be that much more difficult to beat, and they had already been pretty difficult to begin with.

Perhaps the match was so anticipated because of the contrast between the two teams. Darigan's dark colors and Faerieland's lighter theme were like night and day. Darigan seemed like a group of super bad asses who would literally eat anything who came in their way, and Faerieland was considered a group of heavenly angels. It was being hailed as a battle between light and dark, good and evil, all that jazz.

And it didn't help that Faerieland was an all female team.

Rea snorted. Some of the team members on both groups were far from what their team picture made them out to be. Delma, for example, had been arrested several times for tavern brawls and unruly behavior. At least she was reasonably easy to get along with. Unlike Kakoni Worrill, the team captain.

Rea regularly talked with Barit Jowes from Maraqua. A favorite topic of Barit's was how much he disliked "The Black Hole", AKA Elon Hughlis. As far as Rea could tell, the only things that Hughlis was guilty of were being a ball hog and an arrogant bastard.

Worrill, on the other hand, was the biggest bitch Rea had ever met. She treated her teammates like children half the time, and her personal slaves the other half. Worrill took every opportunity to remind the team of how she was the star player, and that she could have any one of them kicked off the team whenever she felt like it.

It was mostly talk, Worrill was a horrible player, and without the rest of the team to cover for her the team would be in deep trouble. Or maybe she actually believed in what she was saying, it was hard to tell between Worrill trying to be condescending and Worill being a moron.

The only reason she wasn't already off the team was because since she was team captain, the other four players all had to want her out. All four of the other team members hated her with a passion, but Elbin Towse was suspiciously nowhere to be found on the day of voting. Ignoring not only the protests of the other three players (and also a signed and notarized statement from Elbin that in the event of her absence she still wanted Worrill to be eaten by a humungous Slorg, or at least kicked of the team), she stayed on as captain for another year.

Elbin was found a few days later at Mystery Island. The Mystery Island team was investigated for the kidnapping, although no one really thought they did it. The investigation ended when the team announced in a press conference that they, "didn't have to kidnap anyone from Faerieland, they are already bad enough with their full team."

Rea also didn't exactly fit the Faerieland stereotype either, she had nearly gored the poor photographer who had suggested that she should carry a bright pink parasol in the team picture. They eventually settled on red ribbons around her ears, which were promptly stomped into the ground after the picture was taken.

But even though the members of team Faerieland didn't exactly fit the part they looked, surely Darigan was full the evil overlords they were made out to be, right?

Hardly. Rae had it on good authority that Tandrak Shaye sang in a church choir and volunteered at soup kitchens on weekends, as opposed to drowning Puppyblews as he once said in an interview. Not only that, but Layton Vickles, leader of Darigan, captain of the most evil group of five Neopets to exist, _knit_. Of course, the public could never know, if they found out it might hurt the image of the team.

Never mind that numerous pictures had been taken of Vickles buying knitting supplies, or that he and other members of the team would occasionally be seen wearing a woolen hat. Or even the notorious press conference where Vickles had suddenly shouted, "I knit and I am proud of it!" Of course the fans of Darigan were far too attached to their images of the players to let a little thing like definitive proof interfere.

So despite all of the pieces of evidence that said otherwise, Darigan was made to fit one stereotype and Faerieland the other.

Perhaps another factor that contributed to the sensation was, quite frankly, the kind of people who signed up for Darigan. A large percent of Darigan's supports had almost automatically decided to go with Darigan only because they were obviously the "dark and evil" team.

Immediately after picking Darigan and seeing that they were to be playing Faerieland in the first match, proceeded to make posts in multiple chat rooms and forums about how they were going to, quote, "beet them wusy faries." Debates started, following by arguments, followed by name calling, and the boards descended into a pit of illiteracy and idiocy. Business as usual.

Frankly, Rae was tired of it. Barring a miracle, Faerieland was going to lose to Darigan, and that was that. She didn't see the point of getting into a fight over it.

There was a knock on the door. "Oh, Valty!" called a high pitched and annoying voice.

Rae sighed. "I told you Kakoni, it's Valtonous,"

Worrill continued like she hadn't heard Rae, "Valty, we've got one more practice before the first game, don't you remember? We really need it, especially you. Your speed is just not up to snuff, remember that goal Volgoth scored early in the Cup last year?"

Rae remembered. Worrill had tripped over her feet and accidentally dropped the ball right into Volgath's hands, Rae had had absolutely no time to react before he powered the Yooyu in.

"Yes, I'm coming Kakoni," said Rae. "I just need to get my gear on."

"Well, hopefully you are faster at that then at goalkeeping, or the rest of the team will be waiting forever!"

Rae started choking the air, picturing Worrill gasping in pain before suffocating. It was fun to dream.

* * *

**So that's the first chapter. I plan on making more of these, but I'm not sure if I'll have the time or the energy. If I do make more of these, I'll try and make it each one stand alone, but some plot lines that were only mentioned may be explored in later chapters. Also, I'm going to try and keep the stories in chronological order, but I might have an idea and go back to do it.**

**If there is any specific story you want to see in this series, leave the idea in a review and I'll see if I can get it in, I have a few more ideas for these, so any more would be welcome.**

**I'm also looking for a beta-reader to catch the mistakes I might miss when I go over this, and also for some general critique. If you would like to, please send me a PM.**

**Lastly, feedback would really be appriciated, please review if you have something to add to the story.**

** Thanks for reading :)  
**


	2. Genius

**A few things to discuss here. I found out that Pink Poogle Toy made a Wiki for Neopets, which has detailed information about the Yooyuball players, so that's nice. I actually found out that Valtonous** **Rea is actually male. Apparently, he had previously been considered female with the name "Valtonia Rea", and for an unknown reason TNT changed the name. Not only that, most of the team is also male. I suppose I'm a bit of a sexist, I'll admit it... So I guess I'm just going to chalk up Valtonous and the rest of the team being girls to artistic license(get used to that, I'll be doing it a lot more most likely).**

**I know I said that I was going to do this chronologically, but screw that. No, really, just screw it. I'll continue putting up the dates so you at least know when it happens, and if I ever re-edit this story I'll probably reorder all of the chapters, and possibly even have a few continuous story lines instead of many.**

**Of course, I'll be continuing some story lines; this ****particular**** one will have at least one more chapter after this, perhaps more. But I'll get to that later.  
**

* * *

**April 2nd **

Elon Hughlis was a scoring genius.

Say what you would about his personality, or his terrible handling of the captain position for Maraqua, or how everyone on the team disliked him, he was still a genius. No other word could describe it.

In his hands, a Yooyu was a lethal weapon. In fact, several goalies, early in a match, ducked when the Yooyu was blasted towards them like a guided missile. No matter what type of Yooyu he had, it didn't matter. Even with the random Mutant Yooyu or the Faerie Yooyu that some forwards actually threw into their own goal in order to get a fresh start, he was still a genius. In fact, even though they lost the game, his last second bank shot with the Faerie Yooyu against Meridell was still proclaimed the best shot of the 06 Altador Cup.

He placed the medal he won in the _second_ most prominent place in his over burdened trophy case. The most prominent spot held his "Most Selfish Player" award.

Elon had quickly been dubbed "The Black Hole", the reasoning for which being, "once he gets the ball, players can forget about ever seeing it again". He _never_ passed the ball. He was the kind of player who would take a shot while being guarded by three defenders, the forward, and a few extra defenders from a totally different team, just for good measure.

Elon was perhaps the only forward in Neopia who could handle this kind of pressure, in fact, he thrived on it. The only time he wouldn't shoot was when the only defense was the goalie. According to him, "It would just be too easy."

Teams found that the only way to prevent Elon from scoring goal after goal was to place a constant double team on him(except for a memorable exhibition game between Maraqua and Mystery Island where the defense would simply ignore Elon whenever he got the ball. He only scored twice that game, but had the ball for 2 of the 3 regulation hours of play).

The best and easiest counter play against a double team would be to start attacking with a different player, who could easily score with the reduced coverage. Maraqua's defenders, Filo Desenz and Barit Jowes, tried repeatedly to get the ball to their talented forward Jair Tollet, but Elon wouldn't have anyone else hogging his glory. It was standard for him to intercept more passes intended for Tollet than the entire opposing team put together.

On the rare occasion Tollet actually did get to touch the ball, she usually scored. While she wasn't as good as Elon, she was still an excellent forward whom any team would want to have.

* * *

It was April, which meant that the teams soon had to finalize their roster for the Cup, among other things. This meant that changes to the team had to happen quickly, or else they would have to wait until next year. It was typically the time where new talent was recruited, and players were dropped. Or traded. 

"So, we _are _trading Elon, right?" asked Jair, walking towards the Maraqua team building with Barit Jowes.

Barit looked uncomfortable, "Well, the thing about that is…"

Jair stopped walking. "What thing? Why is there anything? Nobody likes him, and I know you and Filo hate him!"

That was a bit of an understatement regarding Filo. While it had no effect on their play, it was well known that Filo absolutely hated Elon's guts. The hate might have been mutual, but Elon spent far too much time practicing and polishing his trophies to notice.

Barit composed himself. "Well, say we trade Elon. What then?"

"You know how it works, we get someone else back, that's why it's called a _trade_,"

"Well, who would we get back?"

She paused for a moment, thinking. "Well, what about Soley from Krawk Island, he's pretty good. Or Lilo Blumario?"

"Both of them are the captains of their teams, Blumario actually took a major pay cut to play for Roo Island! Do you really think they would leave if we offered? And even if they would, we still wouldn't be getting a good deal!"

"Well, there must be someone!"

Barit shook his head. "Filo and I have been trying to work out how we could get a fair trade for him, the only way is to take at least 3 people in return. No team is going to give up over half of their members for one player, no matter how good he is! And what would we do with the extra players? Face it, we're stuck with him."

Jair simply nodded sullenly, and they continued their walk. 'It wasn't fair!' she thought. She had joined Maraqua because she had been assured that she would get excellent playing time, exactly what an up-and-coming rookie like her needed. Well, she did get a lot of playing time, but most of it was spent watching Elon score goal after goal.

Jair wasn't overly greedy, far from it, but she was frustrated that she had wasted an entire year playing second banana to that bastard Elon.

She was sure that she wouldn't waste another.

* * *

Saying that the annual team business meeting was filled with tension was like saying that Dr. Sloth was just a tad mean. 

The entire team, minus Elon, was sitting in the main room of Maraqua's team building, waiting for him to show up. Jair glanced at Filo, who was repeatedly stabbing the head of an Elon plushie with his pencil.

"Well, it looks like the team revolves around Elon and his wishes again," said Barit. "We can't start until he shows up."

As if he were waiting for an introduction(which he well might have been), Elon strode into the room while looking at himself in a mirror he always carried around, and sat in his place at the head of the table.

"I hope we can get through this quickly, I need to get back to practicing," said Elon. "I wouldn't expect the rest of you to understand, but excellence takes time and effort!"

This might have seemed like Elon was trying to be insulting, but Elon hardly cared about them enough to try and affect them in any way. Half the time, he couldn't remember their names.

Maraqua's goalie, Tonie Plessix, made a subtle hand gesture to Barit, which translated roughly to, "I wish this windbag would jump off of a cliff." Tonie never talked, and the other three members of the team had learned how to interpret his different gestures. Elon, of course, couldn't care less.

"Now, I'm not sure why you can't do this without me," continued Elon, who still kept looking in the mirror. "But I suppose I can handle this if you all really can't."

They went through the routine business; nothing major would really change from last year. Barit and Tonie had a small argument over the team crest, but it was eventually decided to keep it the same.

"And now we get to…"said Elon, shuffling through papers. "Trades! Does anybody wish to be traded, or propose one?"

No one said a word, although Tonie repeatedly signed "Damn!" and Filo had the familiar look on his face that signified he was daydreaming about shattering Elon's mirror and cutting his throat with it.

"Well, I guess all we have left to discuss is-"

"I think that _you_ should be traded, Elon," said Jair, softly.

The room was silent, even Tonie made no gestures.

Slowly, Elon began to laugh. "Me? Are you joking… um, what is your name again?"

"I'm Jair! Jair Tollet!" screamed Jair. A year of utter hatred for Elon was beginning to emerge that had been suppressed by her normally calm nature.

"Well, Toilet, you need to calm down, and think! Even if you could trade me, what then? Without me, this team is absolute rubbish! Do you really think that _you_ could be even an average forward?"

"Shut up! She's a great forward!" Elon and Jair both turned. Filo had suddenly spoken up, and looked even angrier than normal at Elon. "What the hell is your problem? If you would just stop basking in your own glow, then you could see that Jair, no, all of us, are good players!"

"So that's how you want it, isn't it!" said Elon, actually caring about the conversation for the first time. "I suppose we have to put it to a vote! Well, who wants to completely ruin this team?"

Filo's hand shot up, with Jair's hand right behind it. They glared at Tonie and Barit, but they both remained motionless in their seats.

"Only these two?" asked Elon with a sneer. "I thought so. I would kick you both off of this team now, but it doesn't really matter who is on the team. As long as you two can pass the Yooyu to me, you can stay."

Jair was speechless. She looked at Tonie and Barit, who were both looking at the floor. 'They don't believe in themselves,' Jair realized. 'They actually think they're worthless without Elon.'

That was the root of the problem. No matter how much of a bastard Elon was, no matter how much the team despised him, Tonie and Barit still felt the team needed him. That was why he couldn't be kicked off of the team, balance had nothing to do with it, they were just too afraid to try and play without him. After all, he was a scoring genius.

In a moment of clarity, Jair knew exactly what she had to do.

"Well," said Elon, seemingly forgetting about the argument and picking up his mirror again, "if we're done discussing team matters…"

Jair stood up. "There is one more thing…"

"Yes?" asked Elon, not really paying attention.

"I quit."

Jair had thought the room was quiet before, but silence had only been screwing around. She thought that she actually heard an ant walking across the floor.

Elon smirked. "Well, if we're done discussing things that are _important_ to the team, I guess this meeting is over."

Jair, beyond anger, simply stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her. She had a few calls to make. Jair Tollet becoming a free agent would be big news in Yooyuball circles.

Back in the room, Elon looked slightly puzzled. "Well, what's her problem?"

Tonie flipped him off. It didn't take a genius to figure out what he meant.

* * *

**Once again, I live for feedback. If you liked it, please tell me why. If you thought it sucked, please tell me that too, and what I can do to make it suck less.**

**Thanks for reading!  
**


	3. Extra

**I suppose I'm continuing to screw chronological order and am still going backwards in time. But anway, the next chapter is going to take place a few games into the Cup, at least I'm pretty sure it is.**

**Also, Roo Island stomped Maraqua. Which is actually bad for me game wise since I need RI to take a few losses(I support the Lost Desert BTW), but for a future chapter I needed them to beat Maraqua, so that's good.**

**A****nother point, I screwed up again with the first chapter. I had said that Darigan's 06 goalie, Mungo Lifler, had scored on his own goal, giving the opposing team their winning point. Although it would be different if I had a say about it, my knowledge of Yooyuball is just a bit less than enclyclopedic. Apparently Qyldae Wegg, Left Forward from the Kreludor team, actually puled a ****"Lifler Maneuver" and lost Kreludor an important match. So yeah, not very important in terms of the story, but I thought I would mention it.**

* * *

**December 21st**

The Altador Cup Committee was one of the most well respected groups in Neopia. They dealt with many controversial situations in the sport of Yooyuball, anything from ball tampering to bad sportsmanship.

Tempers tended to flare on both sides of an argument. But no matter how angry players or fan got, no matter how unfair a decision seemed, even the most outraged Neopet always managed to keep a level head while talking to the Committee.

Maybe it was because of their prestige. Maybe because of how they always eventually seemed to make the right decision in the end. Maybe it was because the Drake of the trio had a look on his face that said anyone who argued would be stomped into the dust. It didn't matter, they were _never_ argued with, a decision was _never_ questioned.

"What do you mean Shenkuu can't play in the next Cup!"

Well, almost never.

The three members of the Committee were meeting in the Committee Chambers, an almost sacred placed of Yooyuball rulings. That anyone would even raise their voices in the hallowed halls was unthinkable to all. Except perhaps for Mirsha Grelinek, leader of the Shenkuu Yooyuball team.

"Look, Miss Grelinek," began Amy, the blue Aisha and leader of the committee. The Cup has 16 teams. No more, no less. That's how it's always been, it's a tradi-"

"Don't you dare toss out the word tradition to me!" shouted Mirsha. "If tradition is so important, then why'd you change the tournament from single elimination to double round robin?"

"Miss Grelinek, if you would just calm down…"

"I'll tell you why, because if enough people whine about something, tradition goes flying out of the damn window! You people call yourselves a fair committee, but you're just a group of yes men!"

No one on the Committee had no idea what to say. The most hostile confrontation they ever really dealt with was what would be on the pizza for lunch. They had no idea how to handle someone was just a bit impolite, let alone a furious Yooyuball player.

"That is enough!" exclaimed Nicholas, a red Draik. He stood up from his chair, his face somehow managing to turn even redder than it had already been. "You will sit down at talk about this civilly, or we will throw you out!"

"I dare you!" shouted Mirsha back, placing her nose right next to Nicholas's snout. "You don't have the guts!"

As Mirsha and Nicholas tried to stare each other down, the other two members of the committee sat dumbfounded, not exactly sure how to proceed. Amy glanced over at Joshua, the green Skieth, and asked, "Should we do something about this?"

He smiled and whispered back, "Are you kidding? This is just as exciting as Yooyuball!"

Amy sighed; although Joshua was just as good a Committee member as the other two, he almost never took anything seriously.

Five minutes passed, and neither Nicholas nor Mirsha had shown any signs of backing down. Although through some kind of unspoken agreement they had started blinking again, neither of them were willing to give up an inch.

Joshua shifted in his seat. "Jeez Amy, I have to go to the bathroom, but I don't want to miss anything."

Amy had been about two minutes from snapping, but this comment pushed her over the edge. She stood up and dragged Nicholas back to his seat. "This pointless bickering is getting us nowhere!"

Both Nicholas and Mirsha seemed to come out of a trance at the same time.

"Um… yes," said Nicholas. "I am very sorry, but we simply cannot allow a seventeenth team in the Cup."

Mirsha opened her mouth to protest again, but was cut off by Amy. "Miss Grelinek, we simply cannot do anything about your problem. However, if one of the teams decides to drop out of the Cup, you will be the first team we invite to take their place. I'm sorry, but that's the best we can do."

* * *

"So that's where we stand now." 

Mirsha was addressing the other members of her team in the Shenkuu team common room. It was very nice, comfortable couches filled the room, with a large television in a central viewing position. (Incidentally, this wasn't exactly cheap, they had taken a huge loan to pay for this and some of the other "vital" items from the team- Mirsha loved the smoothie maker that had been installed in her room. They had planned to pay it off with the money they would receive as a team in the Cup.) She had just told them that the months they had spent training for the Altador Cup had been pointless. Understandably, they weren't very happy.

"So that's it?" asked Xana Dilanche, goalie. "We just aren't in the Cup?"

"Yeah, they wouldn't allow a seventeenth team, or at least drop one of the other teams," answered Mirsha, looking furious.

Foltaggio, a forward, stood up angrily. "How is this fair? We're way better than a lot of the other teams that are already in the Cup! We stomped Vitupets and Kiko Lake in exhibition play, why are they in the Cup and we aren't?"

"The Committee said it was the ancient right of, and I quote here, 'first come, first serve,'" Mirsha scoffed.

Larcy Phu, the right defender, sat pondering. He _always_ sat pondering. Larcy was always calm, cool, and collected. He wasn't disliked, but it was hard to say anyone actually liked him either. This wasn't because of any flaw in his personality as much as he didn't seem to _have_ a personality. However, even Larcy looked slightly angry at the situation. "This is… disturbing. There is no way for us to enter the Cup?"

"The only way would be for another team to drop out, but I doubt any team would do that."

"Yes, you are correct," agreed Larry. "I must ponder this."

Turo looked crestfallen. "Well, what the point of even practicing anymore if we aren't going to play?"

Larcy looked up from his thoughts. "We mustn't have a negative attitude. I am sure that there will be a spot in the Cup for us. Have faith."

* * *

**April 8th**

Foltaggio burst into the team common room. "Quick!" he shouted. "Turn on Channel 6!"

Mirsha had been lounging on one of the room's couches after a long day of practice. Even though it seemed like there was no hope of Shenkuu entering the Cup, they continued to take Larry's advice and kept faith. They continued to train and work as though they were actually in the cup, although it became harder and harder every day. Mirsha grabbed the remote and lazily turned on the tv, changing the channel.

The screen showed Derlyn Fonnet, the left defender of the Kreludor team, at a press conference. From the dumbfounded looks of the press, he had just said something shocking. Mirsha sat up and rewound the footage.

_Team Kreludor will not be participating in this year's Altador Cup. This is due to a malfunction with our training centre's gravity control that went unnoticed; it seems that we have been training in gravity that is weaker than that of Neopia since late December. For this reason, it would not be safe for us to compete, due to insufficient bone and muscle density. Rest assured that the problem has been fixed. It is not known, however, whether the incident was a case of simple mechanical failure or the result of sabotage by disgruntled factions here on Kreludor._

_"We will continue our training in hopes of returning to form next year, but I'm afraid it would be impossible for us to participate in this year's tournament. We'd like to thank everyone who has supported us in the past and all of our fans both on Kreludor and in Neopia. Thank you._

The entire team stood up, looking at each other, too excited to say anything. Finally, Xana shouted in glee, "We're in the Cup!"

The room shook as the entire team celebrated. Even Larcy cracked a small smile, if only for just a moment.

The phone in the hallway rang. "I'll get it," cried Turo. "It's probably the Committee calling to let us know we're in!"

Turo left to pick up the ringing phone, and Foltaggio ran with Xana to tell their other friends the good news, leaving Mirsha with Larcy in the room.

Mirsha smiled at Larcy. "Well, we sure got lucky."

Larcy chuckled, something no one on the team had ever seen. "I suppose you're right."

Something clicked in Mirsha's head. "You know," began Mirsha, "it's an odd coincidence that the around the same time I told the team that we needed a team to drop out of the Cup, a team had a serious issue."

"An odd coincidence indeed," replied Larcy.

"Even if they say they aren't sure, I highly doubt it was accidental, everything runs like clockwork up there."

"I agree with you," answered Larcy. "In fact, I took a vacation over to Kreludor after you told us the dim news. Their computer systems are very advanced and well protected, especially the ones that control gravity. But even those aren't totally sabotage proof."

"But you wouldn't have any first hand experience with that kind of thing, would you Larcy?" asked Mirsha.

Larcy finally returned the smile, and said, "Of course not. Now, I believe you have quite a few things to take care of, the Altador Cup is only a couple of months away, and as Captain as one of the teams attending, you have many duties."

And she did, but she would enjoy every second of working on them.

* * *

**I got some of the text for this chapter from the News section of the AC. I copy/pasted, but I did change a few things, so even if you did read it on Neopets, you should probably read it again. So I just wanted to say I didn't write the majority of the news brodcast.**

**Yay, reviews!**

**Mobian Hero- Yeah, that's what I was going for with those chapters, especially chapter 2. But there wont be too many other teams like that, it seems like most professional sport teams would have a reasonably good team relationship(but what would I know about that). But anyway, most of the teams will actually get along with each other for the most part. Not to say there wont be conflicts...**

**Kitayl****- Glad you liked it, thanks for the faves!**


	4. Fear

**As I type, the time is ** **10:40 PM****, NST. In a little over an hour, the Lost Desert/Darigan match will be over. About five hours later, Tallybot will wake up and we'll know who won. I pray to the Gods of Yooyuball that ** **Lost** **Desert**** wins.**

**But anyway, I had a lot of trouble writing this chapter. I was going to go into the full arc that the team takes with just this chapter, and then I realized that it was going to take around 5000 words, so I decided to cut it short. Expect two more chapters about the struggles of this team, perhaps three.**

**And then I really don't like how this chapter turned out. I've been reasonably satisfied with the others, but this one doesn't feel up to scratch. I would really appreciate some feedback with this one, just to know if it isn't just paranoia or something like that.**

**Luckily, I'm really looking forward to the next chapter, where we revisit some old friends. But I wouldn't want to spoil anything...**

* * *

Meridell was not exactly the most united team. To be sure, everyone got along together, on and off the field. However, there was a strict business relationship that plagued their dynamics. Although there were no rivalries or enemies among the Meridell squad, there were also no friendships.

It was normally the job of the team Captain, in this case Sir Pollonaire Freidl, to pull the five strangers together to form one team. However, Pollonaire seemed to have no interest in leading. One would think his noble blood would be a huge benefit in the job, put it did nothing when the Captain had no desire to execute said job.

Not to say that he was a bad Captain, quite the contrary, he called all of the plays, and they were mostly good calls. No one would say he didn't know the game inside and out.

But no one _respected_ him. Even if he called the shots, there was a constant feeling that he only did so by convenience, and that anyone could replace him. And anyone could really; he just was never up to the position of Captain.

So each of the team members stayed behind their respective walls. Fiorina was good enough to go into free agency; it was doubtful whether even King Skarl would deplete the treasury enough to meet her increasing monetary demands. Ilsa Ellits was far too preoccupied dealing with all of the pressure of being the sole defensive player on the team to worry about team unity. The "Wizard" Windelle, while not nearly at the level of, say, Elon Hughlis, still spent far too much time worrying about his statistics on the field. Gregorgio Maille still considered himself to new to be throwing around his minuscule weight around with the team.

And Pollonaire? It never even occurred to him that there was a problem. He would look at other teams, joyously celebrating a hard fought win _together_, something Meridell had never done in all of his time captaining. But he never did anything about it.

* * *

**May 29th**

The Meridell team members, all present except for Gregorgio, were practicing on their Yooyuball field. They had been waiting patiently for his arrival for that past hour, and had decided to start practice without him. Another hour had passed, and the team was a bit less patient.

Ilsa threw a Yooyu into the ground, watching it bounce high into the air. "That's what I'll do to that stupid rookie when he gets here!" she growled, watching the Yooyu that had just started to fall.

"Easy Ilsa," said Fiorina, laughing. "We still need him for the next game! Then you can wail on him."

The Yooyu finally came back to the ground, and then unfolded, exposing itself for the starfish-like creature it actually was. "Forget him," grumbled the Yooyu, "there's no need to throw me that hard into the ground!"

Ilsa and Fiorina glanced at each other. While Yooyu's could talk, they almost never conversed with other pets, preferring instead to talk with other Yooyus. Although this Yooyu had been with the team for over a year, they had never heard it talk.

"Erm..." muttered Ilsa, at a loss. "Sure, sorry about that…"

"No problem," it said, winking. Before the girls could reply, the Yooyu curled into a ball again, ready to be thrown. Ilsa picked it up, still slightly shocked.

Just then, they heard a small commotion from the entrance to the field. Windelle and Pollonaire were helping Gregorgio with a huge sack he had brought in. Fiorina and Ilsa jogged over to help. Together, the team dragged the huge sack into the middle of the field and dropped it.

Gregorgio jumped onto it with a sly grin. "You'll never guess what I got!"

"What is it?" asked Ilsa, her previous anger almost completely forgotten. Suddenly, she felt a large vibration in her arms. She looked at them, and saw the Yooyu she had picked up earlier was trying to uncurl again. She released her grip, and the Yooyu sprang into its full size, running over to the sack.

"More Yooyus!" it said excitedly. Then it paused. "But these smell different than the ones you normally see on the field."

Windelle's eyes widened. "You sly bastard! Those are the 'secret new Yooyus' the Committee has been talking about!"

Gregorgio's grin widened. "Right in one! I managed to get my paws on these just today!"

"But how?" asked Pollonaire. "I thought those were under some strict lock and key."

"What," replied Gregorgio, "You don't think I stole these, do you?"

"I think that's exactly what you did!" exclaimed Pollonaire. "The Meridell team is one of great honor and prestige; you can't sully our names with petty theft!"

"Oh calm down Polly!" said Windelle, shaking his head. "Cheating has always been a part of the Altador Cup, just go with it!"

"But…" Polly looked around for support from Fiorina or Ilsa, but found none. It was obvious they could care less how Gregorgio had gotten the Yooyus.

"I am curious though," began Windelle. "How did you get the Yooyus?"

"Trade secret."

Windelle scowled, he had been expecting an answer like that. "Well, it doesn't matter, let's open this baby up!"

Gregorgio jumped down, and the team opened the sack. Out dropped 10 new Yooyus, 5 of each type. One group was dark colored, certainly Darigan Yooyus. But the other type was a little harder to place. They looked like robots, but Virtupets didn't have any Yooyus. "Hey, Pollonaire," began Ilsa. "Do you know what type of Yooyu the shiny one is, I don't recognize it." She reached out a hand to pick it up.

"Don't touch it!" cried Pollonaire. The other team members turned to look at him, and jumped. Pollonaire looked like he had seen a ghost; he had gone pale and was shaking uncontrollably.

"What is it?" asked Fiorina, concerned.

"Just take my word for it, run!" screamed Pollonaire. He proceeded to take his own advice and ran as fast as his legs could take him.

"What's his problem?" asked Windelle, grabbing one of the metallic Yooyus. It curled up, like most Yooyus were trained to. After a few moments, it started to blink red.

Gregorgio's eyes widened. "It's a BOMB!"

**BOOM!**

* * *

The "boom" that was written in all caps and bolded for extra emphasis wasn't nearly as big a deal as one might be led to believe. Clockwork Yooyus had the impressive property of being able to explode on demand. The resulting explosion wasn't dangerous by any means; the worst it could do was throw someone a few yards. This explosion somehow didn't even hurt the Yooyu; it was somehow able to reform itself from the shards it left after the explosion. All in all, it was harmless fun.

The team got up from where the Clockwork Yooyu had thrown them. Windelle looked at his teammates, and slowly began to laugh. Eventually, they all joined in. "Well," began Gregorgio. "That Yooyu sure was a blast!" The rest of the team groaned at the lame pun Gregorgio had made, he was almost famous for them.

Fiorina looked concerned. "But where did the Yooyu go?" she asked. As if on cue, the Yooyu in question suddenly appeared out of nowhere, smiling.

"Damn!" shouted Windelle, "the little bugger scared the life out of me!"

"I guess the little guys can survive the explosions without a problem," said Ilsa, smiling. "But how are we supposed to play with these?"

The Clockwork Yooyu answered, "When the game starts, you guys have to score with us quick! Two minutes tops before we go boom!"

"Two minutes…" mused Windelle. "Even for us, that is still not much time." Meridell's offense was purely based on being too quick for the opponents to keep up. While critics would say that this was a tactic used to cover up their shoddy control and aiming skills, they were undoubtedly one of, if not the, fastest teams in the Cup.

"I like it," responded Gregorgio. "Gives the play a sense of urgency, doesn't it?"

"But…" began Fiorina, picking up one of the Clockwork Yooyus. Thankfully, it didn't start its countdown sequence. "What's with Pollonaire? This little guy scared the life out of him."

"Who cares?" asked Windelle. "That's something he's gotta sort out!"

"You should care," chided Ilsa. "If we have a goalie that's going to run from a Clockwork Yooyu every time one comes near him…" Ilsa fell silent, and let the team figure out what she was implying.

"Damn." It seemed the best way to sum up the situation.

* * *

**So yeah, I really don't like how this chapter went. In fact I ended it here because I'm still not exactly sure why Pollonaire is frightened of Clockwork Yooyus, or it might just be a phobia even. If you hated this chapter, please tell me exactly what I did wrong and why, I would dearly love to know.**

**Also, expect some Yooyuball action next chapter! Yes, we are getting out of preseason land and finally having a game! Hallelujah! **


	5. Dissapointment

**It's been a while... There are a few reasons why this chapter is a bit later in coming that the rest. I renewed my World of Warcraft subscription, so I was playing a lot of that. Also, this chapter is almost six thousand words long, so it's going to take a bit longer to write. Of course, I could have cut it off, but I couldn't find any good places too, and I did promise some Yooyuball action, and this chapter does contain that. I don't like my style of writing action scenes though, if anyone has any pointers, that would be great.**

**A few mistakes, Larry Phu from Shenkuu is actually named Larcy(I swear it was Larry when I wrote that chapter...). I need to change that, Also, and I couldn't confirm this so I might be wrong, I've seen someone claim that Xana DiLanche is in fact a male. I always go with my first instinct with the genders of characters, if I can't find a definite answer, so I'm bound to be wrong a few times. So whenever I make that kind of screwup, I probably wont change it, call it whatever you want, I personally call it laziness... But names will be kept sacred.**

**In other news, Shenkuu suddenly decided to kick some ass and take some names in the Cup. I've found it hilarious that some people are still making up reasons for Shenkuu being a mediocre team. Although I hate Shenkuu's guts for bumping the Lost Desert down to fifth, I admit that they pwned us fair and square. So I plan on doing a chapter making fun of that situation a bit later on.**

**So I just realize I start sentences with "so" way too much...  
**

**I've talked enough, story time!**

* * *

**May 26th**

Jair Tollet had jumped ship, and Maraqua had had to search for another player. They eventually found Oten Runeu, a center defender who was full of promise. Despite his gruff exterior, he was timid, but had a special way with Yooyus that had astounded the team. That, combined with a few years experience, would make him invaluable someday. A few days after Jair left, the team found out that she had gone to play for Roo Island, and her contract had gone with it.

This was important. Jair, being cautious, had a clause in her contract that said she had to be a forward while she played. This clause was the only thing that had kept Elon from switching Maraqua's formation to a 1-3 spread (one forward, three defenders). Now that Jair's contract was out of the picture, Elon had free reign to do whatever he wanted with the team.

This wasn't exactly bad from a purely statistical point of view. Due to Elon's play style of constantly holding on to the ball, another forward was almost totally unnecessary. With the remainder of the Maraquan team on defense, it would be very difficult to score on them. Of course, since Elon was the only forward, the obligation for scoring fell almost completely on him. It always had anyway, but now it was official.

It was noon, about the time that Maraqua started practicing. This statement was misleading; it would be more precise to say that Elon practiced. Elon woke at around ten in the morning, and then began to look at himself in the mirror and admire himself. After breakfast, he would begin practicing by himself until about nine at night, when he would spend an hour polishing his trophies, eat, and then go to sleep.

The other members of the team had learned not to bother trying to use the Yooyuball field while Elon was practicing. He wouldn't allow anyone to witness his practices. In his words, "Watching me practice is like finding out your parents are Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny at the same time. I refuse to ruin the magic my play creates."

Anyway, when Elon went to sleep at around eleven at night, the rest of the team would practice for a few hours. This had wreaked havoc on their sleeping patterns, most of the team slept until one in the afternoon. It was easy enough to get used to, but still very annoying.

Since it was noon, the entire team was sleeping. Not that Elon knew, or cared. Barit liked to think that if Elon had actually known that the entire team was asleep after a long night's work, he wouldn't have done what he did. But that was a pile of dung, and he knew it.

The intercom system wired throughout the Maraqua team building shrieked with feedback, instantly waking the four team members. Then, Elon's voice began to sound from the speakers. The loud feedback had been preferred by most of the team.

"Attention teammates," Elon called through the intercom. "Please report to the Yooyuball field at once, we are going to have a team practice today, so no lazing about the building."

Barit dragged himself to bed, and pulled on his practice uniform, knowing Elon would be especially pissy if he wasn't there soon. He left his room, and began a light jog to the Yooyuball field to loosen up. On his way there, he spotted Tonie walking ahead of him.

"Hey Tonie!"

Tonie waved, and the precise angle, speed, and length of the wave said, "Hay Barit! Weird that we've been called for a team practice eh?"

"Yeah," agreed Barit, interpreting the wave. "But we might as well go; it's probably something that will make us better at passing to him."

Tonie laughed without making a sound, something he had practiced. He made another gesture, the equivalent of "You don't say…"

* * *

"You got the new Yooyus a week early?" asked Barit, shocked. "Are you serious?" 

"Most serious Baron," replied Elon, who had taken a blind guess at Barit's name. "And I don't mind telling you it was quite a challenge!"

"So, how did you do it?" asked Oten.

"I'm afraid that's a trade secret," said Elon with a smirk.

"It isn't like you to avoid telling a story of your 'magnificent exploits'" said Filo, sneering.

"Well…" stuttered Elon, at a loss for words. "Never mind that! We need to practice some passing with the new Yooyus!"

The team gathered in a circle and Elon pulled out one of the clockwork Yooyus. They didn't spend too much time on those, it was relatively easy to pass once you got used to the explosion.

Once they finished with that, Elon grabbed a Darigan Yooyu.

"Hmm…" he muttered, hefting it. "Feels a little weird. He tried to toss it over to his opposite hand, but the Yooyu actually flew the other way. He managed to catch it, but he had to dive for it.

"What the hell?" he muttered to himself.

"Hey, Elon!" called Barit from the other side of the pitch. "Pass the ball; we want to screw around with the new ball too!"

Ignoring him, Elon tossed the ball around a few more times, but it always seemed to go in a completely unexpected way. With every failed toss, Elon grew angrier and angrier.

"What's up Elon? asked Oten. "Is something wrong?"

This seemed to push Elon over the edge. "GET OUT!" he screamed. "ALL OF YOU, GET OUT NOW!!!"

Too shocked to ask why, and just a little frightened; the team left Elon, who was still trying to toss the Darigan Yooyu properly.

* * *

Elon had stayed on the Yooyuball field for the next 20 hours, never leaving it, even to eat or use the bathroom. He also wouldn't let anyone enter to see how he was doing. Eventually, he stumbled out of the field and collapsed right where he had stood. 

In the morning, the other team members woke to find Elon still asleep on the floor in front of the door to the field. Of course, no one cared about Elon, they left him passed out there (Oten did place a blanket on him however, which Filo promptly took off once Oten walked into the field).

The rest of the team entered the pitch to try and find any clue of what Elon had been doing there. They found nothing; Elon had put the field back in pristine condition after using it.

"I know," said Barit to the other members of the team. "Let's ask one of the Yooyu's, they should know what happened."

Oten ran to grab a Darigan Yooyu from the storage area; it seemed that they had been what had triggered Elon's practicing binge.

Oten set the curled up Yooyu on the field and backed away. "Hey buddy," he said calmly. "We've got some things to ask you, could you talk to us?"

The Darigan Yooyu unfolded and looked up at Oten. "Is it about the Acara?" it asked.

"Yeah, it actually is," replied Oten. "Do you think you could tell us what he's been doing in here?"

The Yooyu shook its head. "He said that I'm not allowed to mention what happened in here yesterday."

"Bullshit!" shouted Filo. The Yooyu jumped into Oten's arms, terrified. "Look, you tell us what happened right now or I'll-"

"Stop!" said Oten firmly, shocking the team at his first display of assertiveness with the team. He looked Filo right in the eye and said, more softly, "soft sell does the trick."

Oten returned his attention to the Yooyu. "So you can't tell us what he was doing?"

"No, he told us that he'd throw us all out if we did!" said the Yooyu, terrified at the punishment. This was exceptionally cruel of Elon. Yooyus were perhaps the biggest fans of Yooyuball. All Yooyus dreamed of being used for major tournaments. Even being a practice Yooyu for a team slated for the Cup was a huge honor. Being thrown off a team for a Yooyu was the equivalent of excommunication.

"Just grab one of the other Yooyus," suggested Barit.

"No point," replied Oten. "He's probably scared all of the Yooyus like this."

"Right buddy?" Oten asked, addressing the Yooyu. It nodded vigorously.

Tonie made a gesture, which Barit translated to, "Do not worry little one, we will not let Elon punish you for telling us what happened."

Once Elon finished translating for the Yooyu, it became upset again, and began shaking in Oten's arms. "But he's the c-c-captain" said the Yooyu, stammering. "If he wants me out, I'm out!"

"Guys," said Oten, addressing the whole team. "We aren't going to find out what happened from these Yooyus. We just have to ask Elon when he wakes up."

As if on cue (Barit swore that he had been listening through the door), Elon strode in, looking far from someone who had just spent almost a full day practicing a sport and had had only a few hours sleep afterwards.

"Good morning team," said Elon, actually acknowledging the team, something that didn't happen very often. He saw the Yooyu in Oten arms; it had started shaking when it saw him.

Elon's eyes narrowed. "We haven't had any discussions about yesterday's practice, have we?"

"No!" cried the Yooyu, terrified. It curled into its ball form and rolled back into the storage shed.

Elon nodded in satisfaction. "Well team, I need the practice field all day today, so could you please go and stuff your faces, or sleep, or whatever you people do all day?"

Tonie and Barit walked off without a word, Filo followed them, muttering obscenities under his breath. Oten turned to Elon before leaving. "Are you sure you are good for practice Elon? You really need to rest."

Elon opened his mouth to reply, seemed to think better of it, and turned. "Just get out," said Elon, in more of an exhausted way than insulting. Oten moved to touch his shoulder, but didn't. He jogged off to catch up with Filo, Tonie, and Barit.

Oten caught up with the group, who were laughing hysterically at something. "What did I miss?" asked Oten after he caught up.

"Well, it's kind of obvious what Elon is doing in there…" began Filo. "I hate the guy, but even I didn't think he was a Yooyu molester."

* * *

**June 4th**

During the 168 hours preceding the first match with Terror Mountain, Elon practiced for 117 of them. 43 of the hours were spent sleeping, including a 20 hour rest on June 4th. One of the hours was spent eating. One was spent with bathroom breaks, transit time etc. Two were spent with his trophies, which were neglected in his long absences. And the final four were used for personal grooming.

This left only 51 hours, a few hours a day for the rest of the team to practice. And if they had been at regular intervals, it might have been okay. But Elon, never one to consider others, never notified them when he was taking a sleeping break, so perhaps 13 of the hours available to the team were wasted before a regular guard was put at the door to the practice field. With the hours they had left, the team became relatively skilled with the Darigan and Clockwork Yooyus, and was in top shape for the upcoming game with Terror Mountain.

June 4th was a day of rest, no one felt like practicing on the last Yooyuball-free day they would have for a month, not even Elon. Except for Elon, who was asleep, the rest of the team sat in the common room.

"So, what has Elon been doing in the practice field for all this time?" asked Barit, thinking to himself.

"I think we can rule out 'lewd acts with a Yooyu,'" said Filo, chuckling.

"He always spent a lot of time practicing, more than all of us put together," gestured Tonie. "If he's upping his schedule, there might be something wrong with his game."

"Bite your tongue!" said Barit. "If Elon isn't on his game, we're screwed!"

"But think about it," continued Tonie, his hands a blur. "You saw how he couldn't handle that Darigan Yooyu when he first took it out, right? Well, maybe he never got the hang of it!"

"Are you kidding?" asked Oten. "All of us got used to it in no time. If we could, I'm sure it didn't give Elon any problems at all."

The Darigan Yooyu was perhaps one of the most difficult Yooyus to score with in Yooyuball. Its special trait was going the exact opposite way it was thrown. For example, if you were charging a goal and threw towards the goal's right side, the Yooyu would sail to the left side. Not only creating problems with shooting, it also wreaked havoc on passing if someone wasn't careful.

However, the Yooyu was always exact in it's deviation from the player's throw, so even an average player could learn to compensate for a Darigan Yooyu, given enough time.

"Just kicking the can around," replied Tonie.

"It's probably just nerves," said Filo. "I mean, our performance in the last Altador Cup wasn't exactly amazing. He's just making sure he'll be at the top of every positive pass column, except maybe for assists…"

"You're probably right," said Barit. "But that might just be the part of me that wants Elon to be amazing at this game…"

"Well," began Oten. "Either way, we'll find out tomorrow.

* * *

**June 5th**

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is a beautiful day at the Yooyuball field!" shouted a Red Grarrl into his microphone. "The sun is shining, it's a clear day, and there's no rain in sight!"

"Ah, but no rain isn't always a good thing Jim!" replied Sarah, a Disco Ixi. "Remember the exhibition between Darigan and Mystery Island last year? It was pouring during that game! Both teams had to really pull together to even stay on their feet, it was one of the best games of Yooyuball I had ever seen!"

"Right you are Sarah!" replied Jim. "But I'm sure our players are sure glad rain won't be messing around with their performances today!"

"Speaking of the players, the big event in this match is Maraqua's new formation! Ever since Jair Tollet left the team, Maraqua has switched to a one forward offense. Not only do they have an almost unbeatable defense, but the one solo offensive man is none other than Elon "The Black Hole" Hughlis! Although he won't have to be doing much passing now, will he?"

"No he won't! With Elon being the sole attacker for Maraqua, the burden for making the plays will be totally on him! But he seems to have been shouldering it very well in preseason exhibition play!"

"That's right Jim! Elon has been compared to a force of nature by some Yooyuball experts, and if you've ever seen him with a Fire Yooyu, you know what I mean!"

"But, in celebrating of this year's Altador Cup, we are introducing two new Yooyus to the games! The teams have never seen these Yooyus before, so they'll have to adjust quickly to the new additions. The question is, can Elon master these new Yooyus like he has the others?"

* * *

Elon walked across the pitch to shake the hand of Prytariel, Terror Mountain's team Captain and left forward. Prytariel was a tall and lanky Aisha, so Elon had to look up at her. Even with her height, Prytariel was still obviously slightly intimidated by Elon. Maraqua's thrashing of Terror Mountain in the previous exhibition didn't help her confidence much either. 

Prytariel grabbed Elon's hand and shook it firmly. "Good luck," she said with a smile.

Normally, Elon would return the smile with one of his own. It was one he practiced often. The smile looked real enough for the fans, but said to the recipient, "You are not worth my time, get out of my way while you still have a chance."

But today, Elon seemed different, much less assured. He didn't even notice Prytariel, and walked back to his side of the field, seemingly lost in thought.

Shaken, Prytariel returned to her side of the field, she had thought it was another one of Elon's mind games, but it was far from it.

At the beginning of every play, the Yooyu was shot out of a small cannon below the middle of the field. As soon as it touched the ground, players were free to rush for possession of the Yooyu. Until it was launched, no one knew which type of Yooyu would come out.

The stands counted down the seconds until the beginning and end of the game; it was tradition, dating back as far as the first game ever played.

**5, 4, 3, 2, 1-**

**GO!**

The opening Yooyu was shot into the air. As it came down, it was clear that it was a Fire Yooyu. It bounced of the ground, and Elon along with Prytariel both took off. Even with her long legs, she was still no match for Elon's amazing speed. He grabbed the Yooyu before she was halfway there.

Elon made a beeline for the goal. Terror Mountain's other forward gave chase, but he had a bad angle of attack, he had no hope of catching him. The two other defenders braced themselves for his approach-

-which never came. Elon threw the Fire Yooyu towards the goal, a shocking move. He was an incredibly long way from typical scoring distance. The ball breezed by the two defenders, who had not been expecting such a move. They moved to turn and see if their goalie, Minae Mitora, had blocked the shot.

But the roar of the crowd made it obvious what had happened.

"What an incredible goal by Hughlis!" cried Jim. "He really caught the defense napping there!"

"He just threw that goal from almost 30 yards away!" shouted Sarah, shocked. "If it was anyone else, that would be embarrassing. But Maraqua has Hughlis on their team, and he is continuing to show he is one of the best forwards in the game!"

"He certainly is Sarah! The defense is going to have to really step up if they want to stop him!"

* * *

After the first half ended, the score was Maraqua 7; Terror Mountain 3. After Elon's first goal of the match, the defense had tightened up considerably. Both of Terror Mountain's forwards, knowing they had no hope of beating Elon to the opening Yooyu, simply dropped back and repelled his first assault. With most of the Terror Mountain team playing defense, Elon had had to improvise, but he still managed to score reasonably well. 

Maraqua's defense had also done an excellent job. In the rare times Terror Mountain did gain control of the Yooyu, they found that the triple defense formation was as difficult to score on as they had feared. They realized that the weak link was Oten, and attacked him relentlessly. Although he had a good showing, Oten simply did not have the stamina to keep up with the constant attacks, letting a few forwards past. Tonie did well in this situation, but no goalie is perfect, and he let a few in.

The Clockwork Yooyu had shown up once, and the explosion had almost blown Terror Mountain's left defender, Selwick Phoss, had nearly been blown out of the field from the explosion. Phoss was happy though, the sacrifice had blocked one of Elon's shots.

The Darigan Yooyu, however, hadn't shown up yet. But odds were that it would happen eventually…

* * *

The cannon sounded, and a Faerie Yooyu popped up, slowly floating down to the ground. Lidel rushed towards the spot it would land, even though he knew Elon would get there first. It didn't matter though, the Faerie Yooyu tended to fall slowly. It would take a bit of time to fall the ten feet, more than enough time for him to meet Elon there and fight for possession. 

He reached the location, where Elon had been waiting for a few moments, tracking the Yooyu's process. It was a foul to try and physically obstruct another player unless either the player or his opponent had the Yooyu. Since neither of them technically had possession yet, they could only maneuver for the best position to snatch the Yooyu.

The Yooyu giggled as it floated towards the ground, knowing what would happen as soon as it landed. It was fun to have this much attention devoted to it, if only for a few minutes.

Three feet away… two… one…

(Lidel blinked)

It was gone! Lidel turned; Elon had snatched the Yooyu, and was running full speed towards, not the east goal that Terror Mountain defended, but more of a Southeastern direction. 'That's odd' thought Lidel, 'He's headed right towards the… oh no!'

Faerie Yooyus are incredibly hard to score with; their innate ability to float slows them down, making them easy for an alert goalie to grab. However, for reasons even the Faerie Yooyus couldn't explain, when they were thrown into a solid object, say a brick wall, at almost point blank range, they would rocket away almost as quickly as a Fire Yooyu once it bounced. With proper training, one can use this to make amazing bank shots.

And Elon had proper training.

As soon as he started running towards the wall, Terror Mountain's defense reacted accordingly; the goalie tensed up, the left defender dropped back to have time to react, the right defender moved to help them both. Prytariel know she had no hope of reaching the play to help, so she moved in position to take a pass if the defense stopped the throw.

Elon hurled the Faerie Yooyu with all his might at the southern wall of the field, making sure he judged the angle right. He did. True to its nature, the Yooyu zoomed towards the goal at breakneck speed. In a flash the defenders realized they had cheated too far south, since that's where Elon was shooting from. But that kind of back shot tended to enter the goal higher up, on the _north_.

They lunged for the ball, but it was too high for either of them to intercept. The goalie tried as well, but he had also been fooled by the bank shot, and could do nothing but watch the Yooyu sail into the goal.

Maraqua 8, Terror Mountain 3.

* * *

Elon hated the Ice Yooyu, not only did it become almost painful to hold after several seconds, but it also traveled incredibly slow, making his shots that much easier to block. 

Nevertheless, he managed to slip past the Terror Mountain defense, and take a shot-

-which was easily intercepted by the goalie. Scowling, Elon ran back to Maraqua's side of the field as Mitora threw the Yooyu to Prytariel, She had again ran in a prime passing position, even Elon had no hope of catching her if she was fast.

Prytariel ran straight for Oten, knowing that he was her best chance at breaking the defense. She juked left, then right, then right again. Oten followed the first two moves, but misread the third and jumped the wrong way, giving Prytariel a clear shot at the goal.

Prytariel made for the left side of the goal, and Tonie followed. He knew she was trying to draw him to the left side, but would shoot for the right once he was committed to the left. He prepared to leap towards the right the absolute second she threw the ball, in order to thwart the fake.

He saw her arm move forward quickly, he leaped…

'Pump fake!' he thought as he left the ground, trying to intercept the shot. But it hadn't been thrown. With Tonie off his feet, it was easy for Prytariel to throw the Yooyu into the left side after all.

* * *

Although he had tried to hide it, it was obvious that Oten had hurt himself when he had fallen. Since he was still capable of playing, Maraqua needed to call a time out in order for their medic to help him. Unfortunately, only the team Captain could call a time out, and Elon didn't even know about Oten's injury, and even if he had, he wouldn't have cared enough to "waste" a time out. 

Still, Elon had no problems screaming at Oten for the two goals he did almost nothing to stop. Oten simply had too many things against him: his inexperience, his injury, his weakened stamina, and his morale, which was rapidly plummeting due to Elon's verbal jabs. But they were still winning, at least for the time being.

The next Yooyu was shot out of the cannon, and Elon almost stumbled on his run to it. It was Darigan. He grabbed it, and ran yet again to Terror Mountain's goal. As Elon used his amazing skill to evade the entire Terror Mountain team, Barit relaxed. There was nothing about the Darigan Yooyu that affected Elon. He was still a scoring genius; Maraqua would still be a good team.

Elon's maneuvers finally brought him to the goal, where he had a perfectly clear shot. He threw-

-and the shot went 30 feet wide.

The gasp from the Maraqua section of the stadium would end up single-handedly winning the Make Some Noise mini-competition.

Elon _never_ missed. Perhaps the shot was blocked, or deflected, or caught, but that was because of actions from another player. But Elon had just missed, and he had missed an easy shot as well. It just didn't happen.

Elon stood there and stared at where he had thrown the ball. He didn't move while both Terror Mountain forwards charged with the Yooyu towards Maraqua's goal. He didn't move while Prytariel took a pass from her opposite forward, which Oten did nothing to stop. He didn't move when Prytariel easily scored the Darigan Yooyu against Tonie, who was still having problems with blocking it.

Eventually, he had to get back to his beginning point for the next round. The Yooyu shot out of the cannon. It was Darigan.

* * *

After the second Darigan Yooyu, Elon's play worsened dramatically. It was obvious his mind was still on the first missed throw. With his head not in the game, he was next to useless as a forward. Terror Mountain, sensing weakness, struck mercilessly. Not only did they make the goal they needed to get ahead, thy made three more before the game ended. 

Final Score; Maraqua 8, Terror Mountain 11.

* * *

Team Maraqua returned to their assigned building for the Cup, dejected. As soon as they got there, Elon went straight to his room and locked himself in. The rest of the team sat went to the main room. While it wasn't as glamorous as most of the teams were used too, it had the bare essentials: television, places to sit, a table for cards and other things, etc... 

They sat contemplating their recent defeat. This was going to be their season for a fresh start, and their first game had been horrible. It wasn't the best way to begin anew.

"Don't worry about it Oten," said Barit, patting his shoulder. Oten had taken the loss the hardest. Not only had it been his first defeat in a real game, but he felt that it was entirely his fault.

"But it's my fault we lost the game!' protested Oten. "If I had…"

"Don't get caught up in 'ifs'" said Tonie, gesturing. "If I had been a better goalkeeper, we would have won. If Elon could shoot with the Darigan ball, we would have won. If the Terror Mountain team had dropped dead, we would have won. But none of those things happened. Figuring out what would come of it if they did is meaningless."

"Well, I blame this loss on Elon!" said Filo.

"Of course you do," muttered Barit. "Blaming teammates for their mistakes doesn't help the team. Not even Elon's mistakes."

"I'm not talking about that, even if it did help," replied Filo. "The only break all of us had was during halftime, we were all in serious need of a break. I don't know how Elon does it, but the rest of us need a chance to take a breather! If he wasn't such a selfish prick…"

Elon burst into the room. There is no point saying "as if on cue", since it mostly likely was a cue that had prompted him to enter.

Tonie waved, not bothering to make any signals he knew Elon wouldn't understand.

"Hey Elon," said Barit. "How are you holding up?"

"Turn on the damn television!" Elon exploded suddenly, startling. Filo, too shocked to argue, grabbed the remote and flipped on the television.

A Rainbow Gelert, Yellow Grarrl, and Green Korbat sat together at a long desk, arguing heatedly.

"I just don't get why you think it's a big deal Sonnie!" said the Gelert. "So what Shenkuu can sling slushies better than the Haunted Woods? The Haunted Woods has a better Yooyuball team, and that is what it's going to come down too!"

"Are you kidding Jefida?" responded the Korbat. "Haunted Woods is almost certain to go to the finals this year, and Shenkuu hung with them in all three events! Even if they lost this round, overall it will help Shenkuu, because now everyone knows that they can compete!"

"You are saying that Shenkuu is going to hit the top four, are you?" scoffed Jefida. "There's no way, they didn't even know that Yooyuball _existed_ a year ago! How are they going to compete with top teams?"

"They are already competing! They were competing just fine against the Haunted Woods today! If DiLanche can fine tune her skills as goalie-"

"DiLanche couldn't guard a thimble! I would bet anything on it!"

"Then why don't you? Standard bet over Shenkuu making it to the finals?"

"Why make it standard? How about this, loser performs on the show, on national television!"

"You're on!"

The Grarrl held up his hands for peace. "Guys, we've 'debated' (he made air quotes) about Shenkuu for long enough! There were seven other matches, in case you forgot!"

"I might as well have forgotten most of them Leon!" responded Jefida. "About half of the games just weren't all that shocking." He pulled out a list, and read it carelessly. "Lost Desert beats Brightvale, predictable; Mystery Island beats Kiko Lake, obvious; Krawk Island beats Altador, I called it there, no surprise."

"No surprise that the first professional team to ever play the sport lost to a group that came out of nowhere?" interjected Sonnie.

"I told you guys months ago that Krawk Island would have plenty of supporters."

"How did you know that anyway?" asked Leon. "When we asked you before, you wouldn't tell us. But now you can make us aware of your (the air quotes came up again)'brilliance', right?"

"Six words: But why is the rum gone?"

Leon and Sonnie groaned. "You're telling me," began Sonnie. "That people joined Krawk Island because of the steaming pile of crap that was Pirates of the Caribbean?"

"Don't you think you're being too hard on it, it was an okay movie…" Jefida began, smirking. "But, yeah, I did. I figure Pirates will be the biggest thing about the same time as signups, Team Krawk Island look like pirates, two and two make four."

Leon looked at him in something that could be awe in different lighting. "Bullshit. You guessed and got lucky."

Jefida continued as if he hadn't heard. "So, Krawk Island wins, no surprise… Here we go!" he said, looking interested. "The Terror Mountain and Maraqua match."

"Now, everyone is probably blaming the defense, especially Runeu (Oten winced), over that loss," began Leon. "But if you ask me, it was definitely The Black Hole's fault."

"You can't exactly call him a ball hog since he's the only forward."

"The name sticks," Leon replied.

"Wild coincidence," said Jefida. "But after that Darigan ball showed up, Hughlis' talent might have fallen into a black hole!"

The newscasters laughed, while the rest of the team looked at Elon to see how he had taken the joke. He seemed to be calm, but then when it came to exploding unexpectedly, Elon was almost as good as a Clockwork Yooyu.

"You're absolutely right," agreed Sonnie. "And I can't believe I just said that."

"Hughlis just couldn't seem to get the Darigan ball under control," continued Leon. "And then it affected him for the rest of the match, he really fell to pieces there…"

"That's right," finished Jefida. "Maraqua is in deep water if Hughlis can't get that Yooyu under control." He proceeded to laugh at his own bad joke, while Sonnie shook his head in disgust.

"Do you ever turn off?" he asked.

The three continued, but everyone had stopped paying attention. The team looked at Elon, who still hadn't moved from where he stood. They were waiting for him to begin screaming, ranting, and other acts of rage. Instead, he sighed.

"Team…" he began. "I think we need to-"

"Viewers, we have just received word on today's Player of the Day!" said Leon. For June 5th, the player is… Jair Tollet!"

Elon broke off in mid sentence and ran towards the television. The last thing the team saw was a picture of Jair looking triumphant before Elon grabbed the television and stared.

"This comes as no surprise. Roo Island was of course projected to beat Virtupets," said Jefida. "But Tollet really shined today! For anyone who doesn't know yet, the final score was Roo Island 34, Virtupets 6."

The team gasped. Wins by such huge margins were very rare, no one had expected this much of a blowout on the first day.

"And what's really impressive about that is that Tollet actually scored 27 of those goals!" added Sonnie.

"She came just shy of beating the previous record for goals by one player in a game," said Leon. "It stands at 29, and was set by none other than Elon Hughlis."

Jefida laughed. "As if it wasn't funny enough, about 10 of those 27 goals were from the Darigan ball. It seems like Tollet has mastered it easily!"

"It seems getting rid of Tollet was the worst mistake Maraqua has ever made," said Leon. "Especially with Hughlis' inability to do anything with the Darigan Yooyu, Tollet would probably be invaluable."

"Yeah right," responded Sonnie. "Even if she was still on the team, she _still_ wouldn't be getting any passes. Getting off of Maraqua's team was a great decision, now Tollet can actually show us what she can do."

"I'll bet Elon is kicking himself right now!" said Jefida, still chuckling.

Through the broadcast, Elon had slowly begun shacking, each comment making him shake faster and faster. On Jefida's final word, Elon screamed. It was a loud cry that did a very good job of summing up how he, and the rest of the team to a lesser extent, felt at the moment.

When he finally stopped, Oten tried to pluck up his courage. "Elon, are you-"

Without warning, Elon threw a clinched fist directly into the television screen, shattering it instantly. He looked back at the rest of the team, and shouted "When do we play Roo Island!"

Barit jumped for the match scheduling, and flipped through the pages quickly. "June 19th Elon," responded Barit meekly. "It's the last game of the Round Robin."

Elon looked each of his teammates in the eye. "We are going to win that game. That game is more important than any other game, more important than the damn Cup!"

"But…" began Barit.

"SHUT UP!" shouted Elon. "If we lose that game, I will kill all of you! I swear to God I will!"

With that, he stormed out of the room. His hand was bleeding from its encounter with the television, but Elon either didn't realize it, or didn't care.

The team sat in silence. There really was nothing more to say. Tonie swept up the pieces of the television screen, and threw them away along with the useless set itself, and then they all went to sleep.

Tomorrow, they played against Mystery Island.

* * *

**So Maraqua isn't exactly the greatest team anymore, nor is Elon the greatest forward. But I promise I won't do a chapter about a player who has problems with the Normal Yooyu, two stories about that are enough. Although, truth be told, I just realized that the Normal Yooyu was a new addition to the Cup. It just felt like it had always been there for me... So, for purposes of the story, the Normal Yooyu was announced sometime in Janurary, and the teams had ample time to practice with it.**

**Everyone who reviewed seemed to like chapter 4, I suppose I just feel that I could have done a better job. But this is really just a rough draft, once I finish I'm definitely going to clean the whole thing up.  
**

**Kitayl- I hope that Yooyuball was satisfying enough, as I said earlier, writing action isn't exactly my forte.**

**Ruby- Lost Desert for the Cup!!(although it seems we're in a bit of trouble right now)**

**I'm not exactly sure what chapter will be next. I have a few ideas for stories, but it's a bit too early to introduce them yet. As for continuing stories like I did here, I'm sure that I will be revisiting the Shenkuu and Meridell teams. As for Faerieland, i have no plans, but you never know...**


	6. Check Please

**Well, I sat to type up the next chapter, and I realized that most of the chapters that I had in mind would work better later in the current extremely convoluted timeline. I've had to come up with a few chapters to bridge that gap, but the idea well has been a bit low. I eventually came up with this chapter, it's a bit different from the rest, but I still like it fine.**

**I fixed a few errors in, again, Chapter 3. Apparently, I can't spell "Draik" to save my life, although "Drake" is a perfectly reasonable mistake to make, I think. And there were a couple of naming issues there as well.**

**Speaking of naming issues, I might be changing the way I name chapters. Keep in mind that this is really just a rough draft, all the chapters were meant to have real names eventually. The dry way I've been naming the rest of these wouldn't work very well with this chapter, so I decided to break tradition.**

**And the ** **Lost****Desert**** didn't make it to the finals. I suppose it doesn't really matter, I haven't played Yooyuball for about a week, and didn't intend to for the rest of the Cup. But I really wanted them to make top four. But if LD couldn't get there, I'm glad Shenkuu did, from a writing perspective at least.**

**  
Enough talk, on with the story!**

* * *

**December 22nd**

'Why the hell did I agree to this?' thought Amy to herself.

Amy, as one of the three members of the Altador Cup Committee, had dealt with a number of sticky situations. While most people she dealt with were civil, there were a few that grinded on her nerves. Mirsha Grelinek had only been one of these encounters, and by far the easiest. She still had the scar from dealing with that blue Techo…

But this was simply madness.

Amy sighed and looked over at Joshua, her fellow Committee member. He was currently stuffing his face, something he had been doing for the past hour. Kelp was after all known for food whose exquisiteness was only outclassed by its cost.

It was also known as a great place to take a date, although it was certainly not having any effect on Amy and Joshua's.

Joshua had been pestering Amy for a date for months. When it had started, she had given him excuses in response, each more ridiculous than the last. But when the only excuse she could think of involved ghosts, she finally decided to tell him that she had no interest in dating a coworker. In actuality, she wouldn't have wanted to go on a date with him even if they hadn't worked together, but the former seemed nicer.

She had thought the situation resolved, but he had asked her again a few days later. She had turned him down, not so gently. He had kept it up for weeks, and after the business with Grelinek, Amy had really needed to relax. She had two hopes: that after the date he would stop asking, and that it might actually be fun.

Amy had known the first to be futile from the beginning, and the second had proven itself false after five minutes.

Joshua had arrived to Kelp a half hour late, while Amy had sat in front of the restaurant, bored out of her mind. When he finally got there, it turned out that he had totally forgotten to make reservations. Luckily (or unluckily, depending on your point of view), another couple left because of an emergency and they had been able to take the vacated table.

In the time before their food got there, Joshua began a lengthy and boring talk about his favorite subjects, himself, himself, and for a change of pace, himself. After a few minutes, Amy had realized that she wouldn't be able to get a word in edgewise, and simply nodded while keeping an eye on the clock. Once the food arrived, Joshua began not eating as much as inhaling his food. Amy had been so disgusted; she wasn't able to eat the soup she had ordered.

And after an hour of watching Joshua order meal after meal, she noticed that he had slowed his pace down considerably.

'Maybe he's almost done?" wished Amy. 'Then I can finally go home.'

Amy was polite to a fault, and she knew it. She couldn't bring herself to simply leave Joshua to his food and go home to try and salvage the remainder of her Saturday night.

Joshua, his plate clear, put down his knife and fork.

Amy tried to begin a conversation, "So, are you…"

Before she could say another word, Joshua let out a large belch that was plainly audible to the entire room. Oblivious to the glares he was receiving from the restaurant's patrons, and to Amy sinking low in her seat to avoid being recognized, Joshua leaned back in his chair.

Amy tired again. "Look Joshua…"

She was interrupted a second time, this time by a Maraquan Kyrii who had just burst into the restaurant. He pushed the doorman aside and pointed straight at Amy.

"Hey, I _thought_ you were that Committee bitch!" he shouted.

Amy flinched, as if she had been physically struck. She hadn't endured flat out name calling since high school.

"You cost me quite a bit of money last year!" he said, still angry. "Or don't you remember the finals match? Inquiry number 3709?"

An old rule for the Altador Cup (one which that had been thankfully been stricken down after last year) stated that a match was not officially over until it was ensured that the game had been fair.

This was good enough, but what hadn't been foreseen was that fans of a team that lost could submit hundreds of fraudulent inquiries in order to stall the eventual official declaration of victory for the other team. So the Committee spent days going through such claims as "Player X used his magical powers to make Player Y miss."

While they were dismissed immediately, it could still be days after a match before a winner was finally declared. This was probably one of the people who had done whatever he could do to make sure that the Haunted Woods' victory wasn't official.

Amy didn't see how she was expected to remember one Inquiry out of thousands, but angry fans and logic never did go together very well. "I'm sorry, but could you remind me what the subject of your inquiry was?"

"That's the thing with you Committee types, you just don't care!" With that, the Kyrii grabbed a plate of spagethii off a nearby table, and threw it directly at her.

Joshua made a spectacular leap to intercept the plate. It was dashing, it was amazing, and it was about six inches too short.

The Kyrii, his job done, ran. Joshua jumped to Amy's side. "Are you okay?" he asked, looking concerned.

She began to respond, but he cut her off, "Don't worry, I shall catch the culprit!" And with that, he ran off to follow the Kyrii, leaving her at the table.

Amy wasn't sure what made her most angry. Was it the spaghetti that was ruining one of her best dresses? Was it the Kryii claiming she didn't care about the Altador Cup? Or was it Joshua thinking that she wouldn't recognize the Kyrii as one of Joshua's poker buddies?

Joshua's plan had been as ill-planned as it had been clichéd. He had probably asked his friend to stage the whole event, giving Joshua a chance to become Amy's knight in shining armor, or some other chivalric bullshit.

Oh yes, it was definitely the third thing that made her really want to punch someone.  
Preferably Joshua, but she had never been picky.

"Check please," she said softly to a waiter. When Joshua came back, he would pay the bill and she could finally just go.

Joshua walked back into Kelp as the waiter brought the bill. "He got away," he said, doing his best to look discouraged. "I'm so sorry about what happened to you."

Amy bit back the dozen or so snappy retorts that she thought of to reply with and instead said, "That's fine Joshua. I would just like to go home now, if that's alrught."

Joshua picked up the bill, and looked through it. "Erm, Amy…" he began sheepishly. "I'm a little short on cash right now; do you think I could borrow, say, two hundred thousand neopoints?"

"What!?"

"Two hundred thousand and ninety-eight to be exact."

Amy grabbed her soup that still sat on the table and dumped it on Joshua's head. Then she wrote a check for the meal and walked out, fuming.

Joshua, dripping with soup, looked up at the waiter, who looked back at him. The waiter was obviously disgusted by Joshua, even his years of experience at the job weren't enough to keep his professionalism from breaking.

Joshua picked up the check. "Well, there you go," he said, handing it to the waiter. "Women huh, you just can figure them no matter how hard you try."

The waiter ripped up the check and stuck the pieces in his pocket. "And how will you be paying for your meal sir?" he asked with a satanic grin.

"Um…" Joshua said, realizing what the waiter was doing, "I'm kind of broke at the moment, and…"

The waiter's grin grew wider, which Joshua thought should have been impossible. "Well then, I guess you'll be washing dishes until you can pay it off."

He grabbed Joshua by the ear, and with surprising strength dragged him towards the kitchens. "For how long?" Joshua asked, terrified.

They stopped at the swinging doors that lead to Kelp's kitchen. "Oh, at the rate we pay dishwashers… about a month!" The waiter laughed and threw Joshua through the doors.

* * *

**Kitayl: I figured that one of the main points in this story(these stories?) would be the interaction between different characters and how they play off each other, glad you liked that. As for a ** **Roo****Island**** match, they are definitely going to play Maraqua. Although it might be a tad difficult to make it exciting since we already know who wins. I'll do my best though!**

**A few weeks back, I tried to make the first chapter acceptable for the Neopian Times, but was thoroughly disgusted by the result. The tight asses who censor stuff over at Neopets require a story to be inoffensive to anyone to be ran. I read the edited version of Hiding Behind Locked Doors from The Water Daemon (who is one of, if not the best author of Neopets fan fiction as far as I'm concerned), and saw what had to be done to the story to get it in the Times.**

**So I'm asking, should I try and edit Confessions for the Times? I really don't want too now, but you may be able to get me to change my mind, who knows?**

**While I'm asking for opinions, what do people think of the title of the story? "Confessions of a Troubled Yooyuball Player" was the second thing to come to mind, and I liked it. It's miles better than "Chicken Soup for the Yooyuball Player's Soul" anyway...**


	7. Recognition

**Darigan Citadel won the Cup. Just in case anyone didn't know. For a good read, check out the board, if you are reading this when I post it. It's chock full of idiotic posts about how DC cheated and how TNT sucks for not having prizes and other classics. Really hilarious stuff.**

**Right after I posted Chapter 6, I realized that since the Cup was ending, all of the information might be taking down. So I had no choice but to spend about half an hour taking loads of screenshots. So even if the Altador Cup page does dissapear, I can still provide accurate information(at least as accurate as I have already been, the occasional mistake does find its way into the story)**

**This is another chapter I'm feeling a little mehish about. The idea is solid, but I didn't like how the character expresses his frustrations. I wont be coming back to this storyline though, so it wont be that big a deal for now.**

**One more chapter introducing totally new characters, maybe, and then I'm going to continue one of the main storylines. Not Maraqua though, I'm saving that for later. I've actually thought about making it a separate story, since it is my favorite and will most likely be the one that is most fleshed out. But I intend to keep it here for now.**

* * *

**June 6th**

It was tradition for the Krawk Island team to sign autographs for fans a few hours before matches, and the nonstop matches of the Altador Cup simply meant more hand cramps to go around for the team. Or more precisely, for the behemoth Bori Garven Hale, goalie for the team.

The team made a very curious sight: a long line of hopeful fans stood before Hale, while the other four waited patiently for the occasional request for an autograph. It was a curious fact that thirty-two percent of Yooyuball fans had to think for a few seconds before they could say how many members are on the Krawk Island Yooyuball team.

There are five, in case anyone didn't know.

It has been said even a terrible team has a chance at winning the Altador Cup if they had a good goalie. Keep in mind, it has also been said that Neopia is flat, NeoCoke tastes better than NeoPepsi, and Eragon was a good movie.

But the thing about the goalie was true.

Ealyn Hawkshanks agreed with the statement, his years of Yooyuball experience made it obvious. What he didn't like was that people applied it to the Krawk Island team.

Just because the behemoth Bori Garven Hale was an average goalie (okay, he was an amazing goalie) didn't mean he carried the team. And yet everyone attributed Krawk Island's success to Hale.

It had started during last year's Altador Cup, when Hale made up for the team's abysmal scoring with excellent goalkeeping. Krawk Island ended up making it to the third round, but Ealyn couldn't care less. What he did care about was that all the fans cheered for Hale, Hale, Hale!

Hale got all of the recognition, all of the glory. When fans stopped lavishing praise upon him, it tended to trickle down to "Dasher" Soley, team Captain and right forward.

Soley wasn't really that great of a forward by himself. Most of the goals he made had only been possible because of Ealyn's skill at getting that old fogey the Yooyu. But fans never cared about whoever threw the assist, only whoever threw the goal.

Ealyn had been described as, "more than willing to do the little things which allow others to reap the glory," and "a selfless player every team would love to have." He hated it, but that is simply how he played on the field. Once the game started, all of his feelings of hatred and envy faded, and he focused on how to get the win for Krawk Island.

Of course, when the game was over, he would watch replays of himself throwing away perfectly good opportunities to get some glory for himself.

Ealyn never voiced his issues to the rest of the team. He figured that his play style probably wouldn't change, and he would only alienate his teammates, and possibly what few fans he had. While he didn't like being known as "the most unselfish player in the league," (or "Elon Hughlis's polar opposite), it was vastly preferable to, "that guy who bitches over not handling the Yooyu enough."

It might have been easier to deal with if his team, especially Hale, were a bunch of ass holes. But, sadly, they were a very friendly bunch, especially Hale. Hale never gloated, never took advantage of his position as the team's star player, he was just a great guy.

Ealyn hated him for being so damned likeable.

But there was nothing he could do. Whenever Ealyn thought about his options, he always came back to a few things. He was on a winning team, a team that was reasonably well knit, and, though no one would ever really realize it, he was a great player.

But what about the attention of the public? The rush felt as a full capacity crowd cheered your named as you rushed in for the winning point? In some ways, these things were much more important than the actual win.

And Hale had _action figures_ for goodness sake! All professional Yooyuball players had plushies made of them (They had only made 500 or so of Ealyn, which were actually worth a considerable amount now because of their rarity). Some toy company, however, realized that Hale plushies were being bought as quickly as they could be made, and decided to capitalize on it by making a few hundred thousand miniature Hale's with "authentic goalkeeping action!"

Hale had bought one out of amusement. Nitri, left defender, bought one since she collected Yooyuball merchandise like prepubescent girls bought Usuki dolls. Ealyn had bought twenty, most of which had been destroyed in fits of rage over Hale's popularity. And then the one he had tried to make into a voodoo doll… He had been drunk at the time.

A young Meerca ran up to Ealyn and collapsed, almost hyperventilating. It was obvious that he had ran flat out to get there. Ealyn helped him up.

"Are you okay?" asked Ealyn. "You look like you just ran a marathon!"

The Meerca thrust a clipboard and pen into his hands. "Sign this," panted the Meerca, slowly getting to his feet.

Ealyn grinned; it had been so long since he had given an autograph that he had almost forgotten how to sign his name. He looked at the sheet of paper, and his smile vanished instantly.

Instead of a blank piece of paper, the Meerca had instead handed him what looked like a petition. Several others had already signed; there remained a single blank space for Ealyn.

Not even bothering to check what the petition was for, he quickly scribbled his signature and handed the clipboard back to the Meerca.

"Thank you so much!" he said, now fully recovered. "This is really important, I've got to go now if I'm going to get this submitted in time!"

The Meerrca ran off, and Ealyn watched him go. He had been hoping that anyone outside of his team would support him for once, and once again his hopes were dashed.

Ealyn heard someone shout, and looked up. Dasher was calling the team into the locker room. Ealyn shook the thoughts out of his head.

He had a game to win.

Krawk Island had trounced Meridell, something most experts had already anticipated. It had been an easy victory, made even easier by Dasher's outstanding performance for the day. Dasher's fifteen goals scored was quite a feat, even for an old pro like him. But no one really cared about Ealyn's 14 assists. He had managed to score one goal that game, but the roar from the crowd wasn't half as loud as it had been for any of Dasher's goals.

Sometimes Ealyn thought it just wasn't worth it, if no one ever recognized him as a good player.

The team sat, watching the end day report for the day's matches. Although they already knew who had won and lost their games, it was still very important to watch, as it gave details that win/loss columns couldn't.

"And now," said Leon, looking collected as always, "We have our Player of the Day."

"Odd story with this one," said Jefida, chuckling. "I was walking over to the studio, when this Meerca almost shoves this petition down my throat and asks me to consider it. I flipped through it, and apparently this kid had gotten twenty thousand signatures saying that a certain player should be Player of the Day."

Sonnie's jaw dropped. "Twenty _thousand? _You're a lying sack of crap."

Jefida pulled out the sheets and passed them to him. "I've got em all right here, unless you think I would forge something like this."

Sonnie glared at him. "I wouldn't put it past you," he muttered. But as he looked through the sheets, his eyes widened. "These are real! I don't believe it!"

"So who is this mystery player?" asked Leon. "If twenty thousand people think he deserves it, then he probably does. But I want to at least know who it is before I back it up."

Sonnie slid a page to Leon, and he read it. "Oh yes," he said. "That is definitely a worthwhile player."

"So we're all agreed?" asked Jefida. Leon nodded, and Sonnie, although he looked horrified to be agreeing with Jefida, did so as well.

"Right," said Jefida. "The Player of the Day for June 6th is Ealyn Hawkshanks!"

Ealyn was speechless. He had only been mentioned once on television, and even then they had pronounced his name wrong. To be considered the _best_ player on the circuit, even for one day.

It was the recognition he had been hoping for.

"Way to go Ealyn!" said Dasher, smiling. "It's about time someone realized who makes most of our plays happen.

"Right," agreed Hale, also smiling. "Without Ealyn, we'd be in big trouble!"

The newscasters continued conversing, but Ealyn ignored them. He hadn't realized that his teammates thought so highly of him. In a way, it was more satisfying than being the Player of the Day.

"Thanks," said Ealyn slowly. He wasn't accustomed to the word, he was used to saying "You're welcome," instead. "That really means a lot."

And it did. But he would still like to punch Hale in the face once in a while, just to relieve some tension.

* * *

**Yeah, I went there. But Eragon sucked, period. If you liked it, how about this: tell me three good things about the movie. But I doubt anyone liked that pile of dung anyway.**

**Kitayl: The AC Committee were too good to not use again, I knew as soon as I finished that bit that they would show up at least one more time, expect them in a few other places. And I understood exactly what you meant about the title. I've got a different one in mind, but I'm going to wait a while in case I think of a better one. I don't want to have to constantly change titles, that might cause a bit of confusion.**

**I normally talk a bit more here, but I have absolutely nothing more to say.**


	8. Grin

**Dang, it's been a while since I've updated. I've been trying to write a couple of chapters, but I just didn't like how they were turning out, I'll need to come back to those chapters later. The idea for this chapter came out of nowhere, and since I needed something to bridge the gap with Shenkuu, this was perfect.**

**The MVP, Rookie of the Year, and the two All Neopian Teams have been announced, and Jair Tollet isn't on any of the lists. This seems to conflict with what I wrote in Chapter 5(is that it?) about Jair being an excellent player. I've got a couple ideas on how to handle that, but I refuse to knowingly ignore the canon that Neopets provides (at least for now, I might cave later... **

**And although this has nothing to do with the story, I got Deathly Hallows and loved it. A lot of people say they hate it, but most of them seem like whiners. What do you say to people who expect the second coming of Jesus from a book?**

* * *

**June 8th**

Jefida was well known for his dazzling smile. But, to be honest, that is a horrible description. A much better one would be "Jefida's shit-eating grin."

For those unfamiliar with the term, a shit-eating grin is a smile given almost deliberately given in such a way that you want to punch the grinner in the face. That kind of smile.

Jefida wasn't trying to be mean or condescending (well, most of the time), it just how he acted. But being one of the top sports analysts in Neopia, he could be a total asshole and still have fans.

He walked through the Yooyuball stadium, grinning at the fans as he passed them by. He relished the attention that came with his job, and couldn't resist hamming it up every now and then.

Jefida spotted the Shenkuu team looking dejected, presumably headed towards their team building. Their game against Roo Island had probably just ended, and the looks on the team's faces confirmed Jefida's prediction of their loss.

Jefida opened his mouth, intending to offer condolences for their defeat. "Congratulations on your ties with the Lost Desert in the side games," said Jefida, grinning at them. He didn't know what had happened in today's events, but he was willing to bet that they had been swept by Roo Island.

They looked back at him. DiLanche and Grelinek glared at him, but the other three team members nodded in acknowledgement.

Years of snappy retorts and zings surfaced within Jefida, and before he could suppress them, he said, "Yeah, it's good that your fans can support you when you guys can't make the cut."

He immediately regretted the words as soon as they came out, for two reasons. The first was that he really hadn't meant to be an asshole. Even though he could be brutal on television, he always tried to tone it down a bit in real life.

The second reason is that there is a huge difference between insulting people who are miles away from you in a television studio, and insulting people who were rock throwing distance from you.

He would have run, except that would have been cowardly. Also the part of his reasonable self that hadn't been overrun by the impulse to bolt out of there as fast as possible realized it wouldn't matter. Jefida wasn't out of shape, far from it, but he didn't doubt any of the Shenkuu team could easily catch up with him. Jefida looked at their faces, in the vain hope they had taken it in good humor.

Nope.

The Shenkuu team looked like they were about to kill him. Wait, scratch that, killing him would be too kind. He and Joshua from the Altador Cup Committee were acquaintances, and from his account of Grelinek's actions in the Committee chambers, she was most likely contemplating torture of some kind.

He looked to his left; nothing, to his right; a mother and her child were buying a hotdog from a local vendor. Maybe he could use the child as some sort of shield, then grab the ketchup and…

"Hey, Jefida!" called a familiar voice. "We were supposed to have lunch five minutes ago, where have you been?"

Jefida thanked every deity he could think of and turned around to see Leon, looking annoyed. "Right," he said. "Sorry about that Leon, I was just talking with the Shenkuu team about their season so far."

He turned back to the team, each of them still glaring. The shit-eating grin was back on his face. "You guys keep it up now, who knows, you might even make it to the top eight!" Damn, snubbing them _again_ was the last thing he needed.

He and Leon walked to the exit of the stadium. Even though he didn't look back, he knew all five players were mentally drawing a target on his back.

"I just saved your life, didn't I?" Leon muttered so only Jefida could hear.

"Many times over, I owe you a Coke," he replied.

* * *

Jefida, Leon, and Sonnie had been having lunch at noon every Friday for the past 12 years, ever since they had known each other. It had become a ritual of their lives. Sonnie and Leon were used to Jefida being late, Leon was normally sent to fetch him while Sonnie placed the orders. Even though Sonnie knew what Jefida wanted in this situation, he always managed to get something wrong with the order. Jefida was beginning to suspect he was doing it on purpose.

As Jefida explained what had happened, he was shocked to find that his friends didn't seem to care. Sonnie hadn't even looked up from his chicken sandwich.

"So you've pissed off the Shenkuu team this time around?" said Sonnie, unimpressed. "They were probably already angry from Tuesday's report, and you had to go and make it worse."

"What did I say in Tuesday's report?" asked Jefida. "That they won't make top four? They won't!" Jefida paused to take a bite of his burger. He winced; Sonnie had ordered it with mayonnaise. "Oh, and by the way, I'm going to look forward to watching you perform on national television when you lose the bet. I'm bringing a camcorder, and I'm recording it at home."

"Well, then it will be easier for you to destroy all of the copies after your horrible embarrassment," replied Sonnie. "But that wasn't what I was talking about. I believe your exact words were 'DiLanche couldn't guard a thimble!'"

"Are you kidding?" said Jefida. "They were that angry over _that?_ It was just a joke, jeez!"

"Well, I imagine you made it five times worse back there," said Leon. "Grelinek looked like she wanted to flay you alive!"

"I know exactly how she feels," muttered Sonnie. "But I would be more worried about Larcy Phu."

"Phu?" said Jefida laughing. "What is Mr. Miyagi gonna do, wax my car? Stop screwing with me."

"No, he's serious," replied Leon. "I've heard things about that that guy." He had indeed. If it weren't for the time difference, the inventor of Chinese water torture could have been Phu's apprentice.

"You guys are morons," said Jefida. "They'll get over it, I mean, what could they do?"

As Leon paid for the meal (they took it in turns), Sonnie left, and Jefida took a moment to use the bathroom. When he left the stall he had used, he closed his eyes for a moment, hoping that he had suffered a brief hallucination. No such luck. There was Larcy Phu, calmly washing his hands. Thank goodness he had just used the bathroom, he was wearing new pants.

Jefida, trying very hard not to acknowledge him, began to watch his hands.

"Hello Jefida," said Larcy in a calm voice. Jefida winced, he had been hoping for anger. That he could deal with.

"Hey," he said gruffly, trying to close the conversation. Not even bothering to dry his hands, he rushed for the door.

"Have you checked your mail recently?" asked Larcy innocently. Jefida didn't bother answering, instead running out of the restaurant as fast as possible.

* * *

Jefida lived in a high-rise apartment building that was near the Yooyuball stadium. It was a beautiful place, but since he didn't have a mail box, he had needed to get a P.O. Box. He had tried to walk home, but Larcy's last comment kept ringing thorough his ears. Halfway there, he gave up, and ran towards the post office. 

Upon his arrival, he fumbled for his keys. He didn't know why, but he was terrified. He had no idea what the Shenkuu team had stuck in his box. For all he knew, it was a bomb, or poison gas. He didn't want to open it, but he knew he wouldn't be able to stop worrying about it until he did.

Finding his key, Jefida unlocked his P.O. Box. Taking a deep breath, he opened the box.

* * *

"So what was in the damn mailbox?" asked Sonnie. Jefida had finished telling his story again, this time during Friday's Yooyuball report, going out live as always. He had embellished here and there, but the essentials had remained the same.

After pausing for dramatic effect, Jefida reached into his pocket and pulled out a small object. He placed it on the desk for everyone to see.

Sonnie choked. "That was it? One thimble? I don't get it."

"I do," said Leon, chuckling. "On Tuesday he said that DiLanche couldn't guard a _thimble_."

Sonnie blinked, and then fell out of his chair laughing.

"I don't know what Phu is playing at?" said Jefida. "What, does he think one little thimble is going to scare me?"

"If we are done with our new segment 'Jefida's enemy of the day,' I think the viewers want to know how the matches went," said Leon.

"Right, right," agreed Jefida. He opened his desk drawer for his notes, and then froze.

"What is it?" asked Sonnie, beginning to get back in his chair.

Jefida couldn't say anything from shock. Instead, he took the drawer out of his desk and overturned it, allowing the contents to spill out and be seen.

Thimbles. Hundreds of them.

Sonnie and Leon fell out of their chairs this time. It was quite possible that they would actually die from laughter.

Jefida checked all of his drawers; they were all filled with thimbles. He composed himself, and pointed at the camera. There was the shit-eating grin once more. "Phu, I'm not going to bother with harassment or any wuss move like that. You know what, the checkup notes I get from my _dentist_ are more annoying than this! If this is the best you've got, then bring it on!"

Miles away, Phu smiled along with the rest of the Shenkuu team. He never backed down from a challenge.

* * *

**Kitayl-This was one of those chapters that I hadn't originally intended to write when I started, I'm glad it's up to scratch with the rest. **

**Some of my favorite characters in this story are the newscasters, ** **Jefida****Leon****, and Sonnie. Maybe it's because of how they play off of each other, or because they are my actual pets (minus the random numbers that TNT generates, when I made them I had no imagination what so ever...). I had originally intended them for only the one chapter they first appeared in, but they've managed to sneak into the story as reoccurring characters.**

**I don't think I intended Larcy to be an evil mastermind either. Thank god that he isn't yet, but he seems to be getting closer and closer.**


	9. Coffee Shop

**I've been trying to write a few other chapters, but I'm having a bit of trouble of it. So I'm hitting the "Stall for Time" button and uploading a Maraqua chapter, since I pretty much know exactly what happens with that story arc. **

**I've also had to start my summer homework, which involved reading "The Canturbury Tales". I absolutely hated that book. Maybe it's because I didn't give a fair chance, or because I hate reading literature in stanza form, but I didn't like it. And my point in saying this is that I might disappear suddenly because I'll have to finish it up. **

**

* * *

**

**June 12th**

Barit looked at Jair over Monday morning coffee. They had been coming to this specific coffee shop together for over a year, sometimes traveling for hours to get here. But it was worth it; they both agreed the small shop made the best coffee in Neopia. Even though they had gone there many times, after Jair had left the team, Barit had felt that there was a rift between them.

Jair felt differently. Two weeks after she was signed with Roo Island, she had invited him for another meeting. They weren't dates, Barit and Jair had both agreed that there was nothing between them romantically. It wasn't one of those agreements that end in erotic nights read about in dime store romance novels (which incidentally make very good toilet paper), they both fully meant it.

Jair took a sip of her coffee and said, "So how's Elon holding up?" Anyone who had known Elon for any amount of time knew that he took perfection in Yooyuball very seriously. Saying that he was taking his failures on the field hard was a vicious understatement.

"Well," began Barit. "He's only getting about four hours of sleep a day because of all of the practice he's been putting in."

"That's actually better then I expected," replied Jair. "He's still trying to work out how to use the Darigan Yooyu?"

Barit nodded. "He has one with him at all times nowadays, but he just can't seem to get it down." Barit cursed himself inwardly, he didn't want to seem like he was asking Jair to help Elon. Not that Elon would except help from Jair in the first place, but it was still very tactless.

Jair didn't seem to notice though. "And I suppose the Yooyuball report on the first day of the Cup didn't help matters either," she said guiltily.

Barit poured sugar into his cup. "I think that's what pushed him over the edge. You know, he actually threatened to kill us all if we lost the game against you guys."

Jair looked concerned. "I'm sure was just overreacting."

"I think so too, but I'm making absolutely sure that he and I aren't along when we lose to you."

"_If,_" corrected Jair. "Not when."

"When," insisted Barit. "Well, unless a Darigan Yooyu doesn't show up at all during the match, then we might have a shot."

Elon was magnificent, as always, when a Yooyuball game began. At least, until a Dairgan Yooyu showed up. Then his skill plummeted, and he was good for almost nothing.

"Maraqua has four other good players," insisted Jair. "Especially since Oten has gotten up to scratch."

Oten had been going through a trial by fire the past few games; Elon's horrible play caused the defense to have to bust their asses to even make the game interesting. Luckily, Oten had gotten used to the speed and intensity of professional Yooyuball, and was no longer a weak link in the chain.

"Look at the stats," said Barit. "We're a losing team, and Roo Island hasn't lost a match! Roo Island has Lilo Blumario, and he's amazing. Oh," Barit added with a wink, "and that Jair Tollet is okay I guess."

Jair smiled, and playfully shoved Barit from across the table. "Only okay?"

Barit returned the smile. "Yeah, only twenty-seven goals scored in a game? What garbage!"

Jair's smile faded, and Barit instantly regretted the words. "I hate Elon so much sometimes," she whispered. "I thought I'd be happy on a different team, away from him. And I am, the people from Roo Island are great. I should have been ecstatic over that first game, but all I could think of was how Elon was taking it. It's still all about him! I even feel like I'm doing this to him…"

Barit lightly grasped her hand which lay on the table and looked her in the eye. "He's doing this to himself; it's him reaping what he's sowed by being a jackass for the past few years. You can't blame yourself."

"I know," replied Jair. "It's weird. Half of the time I hate his guts, and the other half I'm worrying about him. Sometimes both at once."

"I know how it is."

They sat in silence, watching people come and go on the street outside. A scowling rainbow Gelert was dumping a box that was full of what looked like thimbles into a trashcan.

"It wouldn't be that bad if Elon would just suck it up and make our spread a 2-2," said Barit suddenly, breaking the silence. "Filo or I would be doing better out there than he is right now, and that's saying something!" It was saying something, they were excellent defensive players, but couldn't play as forwards to save their lives. This, in retrospect, was most likely why they had been chosen for the team to begin with: no competition for Elon. Payback's a bitch.

"Don't be so negative," replied Jair. "You've won a game or two!"

"We beat _Kiko_ _Lake_," said Barit dismissively. "That team is even more screwed up then ours, it wasn't exactly a huge accomplishment."

Barit looked out of the shop's window once more and sighed, finishing the rest of his coffee. "Jair, you made the best decision of your career getting off of the team while you could. Even if you were on the team, Elon still wouldn't be passing the Yooyu to you, and we'd only have two defenders."

"Well, even if it was a good move career-wise," said Jair, "I do still miss all of you, even Elon every now and then."

Barit stared at her in shock. "Well," she amended, "Just for a moment."

"You know," said Barit. "I really wish we had just kicked Elon off the team when we had the chance."

"You can't have known he was going to have a bad season," said Jair. "Don't blame yourself."

"I didn't mean because of Elon's playing," said Barit softly. They looked at each other, and a silent understanding passed between them. They both felt lighter than they had in weeks.

"What the hell is this?" cried an annoyingly familiar voice. They looked up and winced. There was Elon, with a look of murderous rage.

Elon glanced to see who Barit was with, and quickly looked away. "Odis told me you were here!" he shouted.

"I assume you mean Oten," replied Barit calmly. Barit had gotten used to Elon ranting over the past couple of weeks, and didn't take him nearly as seriously as he used to.

"And here I find you… consorting with the enemy!" said Elon, struggling to find the proper words. "You might give away our secrets!"

"What secrets?" asked Barit. "We don't _have_ any secrets, last time I checked."

"Are you serious?" replied Elon. "Any team in the Cup would die to hear of my amazing strategies, especially that third-rate _trash_ you've been speaking with."

Barit looked over to Jair; he was expecting her to go from zero to furious in two seconds flat. Instead, she had a look on her face that took him a few seconds to recognize, as he had never seen anyone direct it to Elon. Pity.

This was probably worse than if she had hated his guts.

She reached for his shoulder. "Elon, if we could just…"

He knocked her hand away violently. "Don't you come near me you traitorous, idiotic, hair-brained, talentless BITCH!"

Jair froze. For a moment, Barit thought that she would let it go like she had the last comment. Failing that, he expected something along the lines of Jair's half finished coffee being dumped on his head.

Instead, Jair swiftly jabbed him directly in the throat. Stunned and gasping for breath, Elon stumbled backwards; right into Jair's outstretched leg. He fell, and a blow to the temple knocked him out cold. All of this happened in about three seconds.

Barit blinked. Then he blinked again. He rubbed his eyes for good measure. When he was finally convinced it had actually happened, he said, "Holy shit! Jair, what the hell was that?"

She blushed. "My father was a martial arts teacher; I learned a lot from him when I was a kid."

"Is he going to be okay?" Barit asked, slightly concerned.

She looked at Elon, who was unconscious on the floor. "He should wake up in a few minutes."

"You probably shouldn't have done that."

Jair sighed. "Yeah, I've just made the situation about ten times worse, haven't I?"

"Well, now that you've tap danced over the remains of his pride…" Suddenly, an idea struck him. "Well, we could say something else happened."

"Are you kidding? There's no way he would buy it."

"All we need to do is appeal to his pride," said Barit. "Tell him that… a fan that was looking for an autograph got a little excited and knocked him out when he tried to get his attention."

Jair laughed, but then realized Barit was serious. "Not even Elon would believe that."

"Well, when the alternative theory is Jair Tollet beat the living snot out of him…"

"Point made," said Jair, smiling. "He'll be waking up soon, I should go. They looked around the coffee shop. Everyone in the building was staring at them, and they had been completely oblivious to it.

"I suppose we'll need to leave a big tip."

* * *

Barit and Elon were walking to the Yooyuball stadium for the day's game. Elon had bought the story hook line and sinker. Barit had figured he would, but was still relieved that his plan worked.

"Barkis?" asked Elon.

"Yes," replied Barit, not bothering to correct Elon about his name.

"Was Jair Tollet in that coffee shop with you?"

Barit paused, then said, "Of course not! You took a harder blow to the head than I thought!"

Elon looked relieved. "Oh thank goodness. I had a horrible dream about her when I was out."

"You don't say."

* * *

**I really do over uses the newscasters...**

**Anyway, Jair was going to originally hit Elon with the coffee, but I decided that since Amy had already done that it would be pretty weak. And somewhat sexist, but that's neither here nor there.**

**My Stall for Time button has given me a week tops before I have to finish one of that chapters that I have halfway done, so expect a new chapter by then.**


	10. Understanding

**I had a lot of trouble writing this chapter. It was really wierd though. I wrote about one page, then couldn't write anything else for maybe two weeks. And then I wrote a short Code Lyoko fic and I wrote the rest of the chapter shortly after that. I guess writing something else really can help with a temporary loss of ideas.**

**This chapter is much more serious then the rest have been(You'll know what I mean when you get there), and I've never really written that type of scene before. So I'd especially like seem feedback on that specific bit if you do review. I do like the direction I took with Polly's fear of Clockwork Yooyu's, I had been hung up on that for a while. **

* * *

**June 5th**

The Meridell team had no idea what they were going to do about Pollonaire's fear of Clockwork Yooyus. They had convinced him to stay in the pitch and watch them handle the Yooyus. He saw them be caught in the explosions dozens of times and be perfectly alright. But when it came time to actually get Pollonaire handle one, he would bolt again.

It was rather like trying to convince a child that a shot from a doctor doesn't hurt. Except that shots damn well do hurt, but that's besides the point.

Eventually, the team had grown tired of trying, and had decided to let Pollonaire work it out for himself. They were sure that when push came to shove, Pollonaire would draw on some untapped source of courage. The game with Tyrannia had proved otherwise.

The team sat in the common room, except for Pollonaire. As soon as the game had ended, he had locked himself in his room. Although he hadn't cost his team the game, he had cost them their pride and honor, something that was even more valuable to him due to his upbringing as a noble.

Windelle was annoyed; all of the tension in the air was really getting to him. "What's the deal with everyone?" he asked. "You guys are acting like someone died! We didn't even lose the game, what's the big deal?"

Meridell had in fact beaten Tyrannia 16 to 12. Of course, it really should have been 16 to 11. In the final seconds of the game, Evrem Guilako, right forward for Tyrannia, had been rapidly approaching Meridell's goal with a Clockwork Yooyu in hand. Ilsa Ellits had ran towards him to block the attempt, and managed to get a hand on the Yooyu as he threw it.

It had still been moving towards the goal, but slowly enough that a toddler could have probably blocked it. An easy save for any goalie, especially Sir Pollonaire Freidl, people had assumed that the game was over with the catch.

Pollonaire had screamed shrilly, and jumped away from the Clockwork Yooyu, which sailed slowly into the goal. The buzzer that signified the end of the game was drowned out by gasps, followed by a roar of laughter from the entire crowd.

Fiorina shook her head. "We won against Tyrannia! That team hasn't been in sync with each other for years! What happens when we play a good team?"

Ilsa nodded, agreeing with Fiorina. "We got lucky today. We can't count on it happening again."

For once, Gregorgio sat deep in thought. Finally, he looked up and said, "Fiorina, you need to go talk with him."

"What the hell will that do Greg?" asked Windelle angrily. "We've all tried to talk with him, it didn't work then, why should it now!"

"It has to be Fiorina, and just her," said Gregorgio. "She's got that… feminine touch." He looked each of his teammates in the eye to see what they thought of his plan. He flinched when he met Ilsa'a glare.

"Of course," he added quickly. "I in no way meant to imply that Ilsa is any less feminine or compassionate or anything else than Fiorina, I just meant-"

"I know what you meant Gregorgio," answered Ilsa curtly. "And the only reason that I don't stop you into the ground is because you are right."

Ilsa turned to Fiorina, "You need to go talk with him; Pollonaire will open up to you."

Fiorina hesitated, and then nodded. "You're right. I'll go try now. The sooner the better."

* * *

Fiorina knocked softly on the door to Pollonaire's room. "Pollonaire? Are you in there?" 

A pause, and then, "Yes."

"Can I come in?"

Fiorina heard Pollonaire getting off of his bed, and walking over to the door. He unlocked it and flung the door open.

Fiorina gasped. Even though he had only been in the room a few hours, both he and the room looked awful. It was obvious that he had gone into at least one rage during his self-imposed exile: most of the furniture was in tatters. Pollonaire himself seemed okay, but his eyes carried a dark, haunted look.

Without realizing it, Fiorina took a step back. This was a side of Pollonaire that no one on the team had ever seen, and it scared her.

"P- Pollonaire," she stammered. "Are you okay?"

He looked at her for a moment, then nodded.

Fiorina had no idea what to say next. She was afraid that if she said the wrong thing that Pollonaire would slam the door in her face.

"I know I'm being a coward," said Pollonaire softly.

Fiorina nodded slowly, but didn't say anything, instead allowing him to continue on his own.

"I keep telling myself that it's no big deal, that nothing will happen, that it will all be okay. But as soon as I see one close up, the rational part of my brain disappears."

There was no need to ask what he was talking about.

"All I can think is 'Get away! Get away! You are going to DIE!' It fills my head, it's all I can think about. And then when I'm 'safe', I wonder what had me so scared in the first place. I think that's what I'm truly afraid of, that a damn _Yooyu_ has so much power over me.

"The fear grows, and creates more fear, which creates more fear on top of that! It's an endless cycle of ever expanding, ever increasing, ever widening, ever devouring, all consuming, unending, fear; fear that feasts on ME!!

"And then eventually they'll be nothing left of me but fear. Fear eating fear then shiting fear that more fear will eat and shit and that is all I will be if I let that damn Yooyu get too close! I have to stay as far from it as possible, to stay alive, so I don't become the fear-"

Fiorina grabbed Pollonaire as tightly as she could, and pulled him into a fierce hug. She didn't know why she did, but Fiorina was compelled to do _something._ Pollonaire had just poured out his soul, and by doing so had created something between them. It wasn't pity, she knew that was the last thing he wanted. It was closer to understanding; she finally _understood_, and that meant everything.

One of them was crying. Neither of them knew which it was, and it didn't matter. She understood Pollonaire, and that was the only important thing.

* * *

"Guys, this is much more serious then we expected." 

Fiorina and Pollonaire had eventually separated, and she knew that he needed more time alone now. She had then gone to tell the rest of the team what she had discovered. Together, they could work out the next step.

"Bullshit!" said Windelle. "He's being a little bitch when it comes to the Clockwork Yooyu, and we just need to prove to him that it isn't that big a deal."

"That won't work!" cried Fiorina. "He knows that it isn't dangerous, of course he knows it! He isn't just scared of being hurt or the explosion or anything like that; he is scared simply by _the Clockwork Yooyu itself!_"

The room was silent while everyone, even Windelle, pondered the information. "So, it's more of a phobia than a fear?" said Gregorgio, musing.

"Yes, I guess you could say that," said Fiorina. "No matter how we tell him or show him that the Yooyu is harmless, it wont matter. He'll still be utterly terrified by it."

"So how do we fix it?" asked Ilsa.

"We can't push him too hard. If we do, Pollonaire might actually have a nervous breakdown."

"Oh shut the hell up with your psychobabble!" said Windelle. "Once we get him in an explosion, he'll get over it without a problem."

"How many times do I have to tell you, the explosions aren't the problem!" cried Fiorina, shocking the entire team.

Windelle recovered quickly. "Well, at least one more time apparently! How the hell can you just be afraid of a _Yooyu_? They're harmless!"

"You just don't get it!"

Windelle sneered. "You're right, I don't! The way I see it, you want to piss away our chances of winning the cup because you want to baby Polly!"

"What's more important, Meridell winning the Cup, or Pollonaire's mental health!?"

"You say that like his mental health is an issue in this situation. But even if it was, the Cup is still much more important than anything!"

There was a stunned silence. "How the hell can you say that!" shrieked Fiorina. "Don't you care about anyone on this team!"

Windelle actually laughed. "And what, you do?"

Fiorina flinched as if she had been struck. "Of course I do! How can you say that!"

Windelle's laughter grew louder. "Oh, this is rich! _No one_ on this team cares about the other members! Everyone's head is too far up their asses for that! I don't have teammates, I have people to help me do better in Yooyuball. Ilsa and Pollonaire don't have teammates, they have people to score for them. You don't have any teammates either!"

He sneered again, and it was much worse than the first time. "You just have people you work with to collect a paycheck."

Fiorina and Windelle both glared at each other; a tangible aura of hate between them. Eventually, they both turned away and walked to their respective rooms.

Gregorgio looked at Ilsa nervously. "You're my teammate, right?"

"On the days you are tolerable."

"I'm not picky."

* * *

**I liked how this chapter turned out, it was really happy and upbeat! Yeah...**

**Kitayl- Glad you liked the chapter, I'd been messing around with something to bridge the gap between the Maraqua chapter before that and then Maraqua RI game, so it's good to know that it worked.**

**  
So, Polly's monlogue. Liked it? Hated it? tl;dr? I want to hear your thoughts. No, not you, the person next to you!**

**I actually used the newscasters again in the beginning of the chapter, but then I realized I'd been using them way too much. So they got canned temporarily, they shouldn't be in the next chapter as well. The next chapter should be much more lighthearted than this one, so that's nice, I don't want to get too serious...**

**Thanks for reading! **


	11. Cowardice

**This wasn't the chapter I had originally planned to do, but it is more light-hearted than Chapter 10. Not that that's saying much, but whatever. I don't normally do romance, but I thought I'd give it a go in this Chapter. Feedback is appreciated, as always.**

* * *

Wila Benne, left forward, burst into the Tyrannian lounge where Evrem Guilako and Harlis Neyhbol both sat in the room, relaxing for a few hours before their next game. She was about as angry as the rabid fans who post on forums are stupid. And for those who don't know, rabid fans are pretty stupid.

Evrem Guilako looked up from the day's newspaper. "What's up Wila?" he asked.

"That damn stalker called me again!" yelled Wila. "This is the twelth time too!"

Since Yooyuball players were so popular in Neopia, it was normal for some of the crazier of the crazy fans to take things a little too far. In fact, twelve different players had a restraining order on a certain Blue Techo. And he was sane (according to the doctors at least).

But this stalker was different. Instead of marriage proposals, _other_ proposals, threats, insults, lawsuits, and songs, this stalker did something totally different. Upon Wila picking up her phone and answering it, the person on the other line would say absolutely nothing for a few moments, and then hang up. His purposes were unknown, and that scared Wila more than any maniac screaming obscenities.

Harlis Neyhbol wiped his brow. "So, do you have any idea who this guy is?"

"No," she said. "But once I find out, I am going to personally kick his ass!"

Harlis flinched. "I'd hate to get between you and him."

What Wila didn't know is that the laws of physics didn't give a damn whether Harlis wanted to get between Wila and her stalker, since it was impossible and all. To put it another way, Harlis was Wila's stalker.

Ever since he had first laid eyes on her, Harlis had been in love with Wila. Once they got to know each other that love had only blossomed. He had tried several times to ask her out, but he was too afraid. Over the past few years, he had finally worked up the courage to call, but was still too afraid to actually ask the question.

His player information said his main weakness in Yooyuball was nerves, and the same applied to real life. Harlis was absolutely terrified of asking Wila out on a date. What if she said no? Embarrassment, shame, the entire team dynamic thrown out of whack, it was horrible to think of. And even if she said yes, that only created a whole new set of problems.

"You know," said Wila thoughtfully once she had calmed down. "Whoever it is really needs to get some balls."

Harlis gulped. "What do you mean?"

"Well, he probably wants to ask me something, but he's too scared to do it."

Harlis did his best to laugh, but it wouldn't come. Instead, he said, "You think so? That's pretty pathetic." He wasn't lying, he thought it was very pathetic that he still couldn't work up the courage to ask a girl on a date.

Wila sighed. "You never know, he might have even wanted to go on a date or something. Too bad he didn't just ask while he had the chance."

"You mean he doesn't have the chance anymore!" cried Harlis, terrified.

Wila didn't seem to notice his odd outburst. "No, I'm going out for dinner with Mungo Lifler tonight."

Something died within Harlis as Wila said those words. It was as if some mean child had uprooted the garden of his love, and then salted the earth just for spite.

Evrem looked up from his paper again. "Lifler? Why are you going out with him?"

"Well," said Wila. "We just happened to meet at the Altador Stadium one day, and things kind of took off from there."

"Let me rephrase that," said Evrem. "Why would you go out with him? I once sat next to him on a bus ride to an exhibition series, and wanted to kill him after five minutes. I don't see how anyone could stand him."

Wila winced. "Well, maybe you just didn't give him a chance; he really is a nice guy."

Evrem sighed, and returned to the newspaper.

Wila turned to Harlis. "I'm so happy," she said, grinning to emphasize the point. "You can't imagine how wonderful it is to be with someone you love!"

"Oh," he said in a hollow voice. "That's great." He had only heard half of what Wila had said, an odd contrast of how he normally hung onto her every word.

Harlis was on the verge of tears. He had been a coward, and now he had probably lost his only chance to be with Wila. Not only that, but he'd lost it to _Mungo Lifler_.

His life was no longer worth living.

* * *

In his fit of depression and sadness, Harlis opened a window on the twelfth floor of the hotel Tyrannia was staying in. He then walked through it onto the narrow ledge, and closed the window behind him.

Without Wira, he really had no point in existing. He would have muttered some epic poem about pain, loss, and suffering; but he was never really inclined into writing. He decided he would just look over the edge, and simply fall to the pavement below.

He looked down.

And then he realized that his life certainly _was_ worth living, with out without Wira.

"What the hell was I thinking?" Harlis muttered to himself. He had almost killed himself, all because of a setback in his divine quest for love? He really was a coward!

"No more!" proclaimed Harlis. "I'm going to walk right up to Wila right now and tell her how I feel!"

With this in mind, Harlis reached for the window and tried to pull it open. It didn't move. He pulled harder, as hard as he could without risking falling off the edge. Nothing.

Harlis realized the seriousness of the situation he was in. He trapped on the outside of a building, one over one hundred feet in the air. If he fell, all the magic in Faerieland wouldn't be able to help him. The only thing keeping him from certain death was a three inch wide ledge that was already seeming to shrink in size.

And to top it off, Wila was about to go on a date with Lifler. His situation wasn't good.

* * *

An hour passed. The only reason he was still alive was because his years of playing as a goalie had provided him with excellent balance. But he was starting to tire. Imminent doom will do that to anyone, even Yooyuball players.

"Harlis? What the hell are you doing down there?"

Harlis looked up. Looking down at him from the window a floor up was the most beautiful face he had ever seen. It was beautiful because not only did it mean we was probably going to live after all, but it was also Wila.

"Wila!" he cried, not wanting to waste his opportunity. He'd be damned if he was going to die before he confessed to Wila. "I love you!" he shouted.

Wila paused for a moment, considering. "I know!" she finally said.

Harlis almost fell off of the ledge right there. "Is this really the time for Star Wars references?"

"But I'm serious! I knew you were the one who was making all of those calls!"

"How?" asked Harlis. He was sure that he had been unrecognizable by only the sound of him breathing into the phone.

"I have Caller I.D. you dumbass! All the phones in this hotel do!"

Again, Harlis caught himself before he literally died of shock.

"So you figured out I loved you because of that?"

"Well that clinched it," began Wila, smiling. "But everyone already knew anyway!"

"Really? Was it that obvious?" Harlis had thought he had been hiding his feelings very well.

"People on _other _teams knew Harlis." Apparently he hadn't been as good as he thought. A sudden thought struck him. "But you said you were going out with Lifler!"

Wila laughed again, a sound that Harlis would, well, stand on the outside of a building for an hour to hear.. "I was just trying to make you jealous!" she called down to him.

"Jealous?" said Harlis, confused. "So you…" He looked into her eyes, and didn't need to ask his question.

"So, would you like to go out for dinner after the game?" asked Harlis, with no nervousness at all for once.

"Of course," said Wila. "Can't wait."

Wila winked, and closed the window. Harlis stood, stunned at what had just taken place. Then, the full impact of it suddenly struck him. He would have jumped for joy if he hadn't still been trapped…

…on the ledge.

"She _is_ going to remember to save me, right?"

She did. Eventually.

* * *

**Ruby: You're right, I'd noticed that too many of the chapters were straying too far from the players. I'd originally wanted to focus on them, and I want to try and stay in that general area for the most part.**

**Kit Quizmo: Like I said, angst isn't my normal cup of tea, so don't expect it too often. But I'm glad I was able to deliver when I tried it for once.**

**I'm looking back at some of the earlier chapters, and the Faerieland thing is really ticking me off. I really make too many assumptions about gender, I'm probably going to go back and redo that chapter so my blatant sexism is toned down a tad.**

**I've also still been seriously considering taking out the Maraqua chapters and making them their own story. The biggest reason I haven't is that I really have nothing between Maraqua/Roo ** **Island****'s first game and their second game. I may think of something.**

**And I've also been toying with a new Neopets story, another plot/event related thing. But it's going to be an actual, multi-chapter story, so I'm not sure when or if it will even get started, let alone finish. I may put up the first chapter soon, but no promises.**

**School starts in two weeks. Unless my grades turn to shit this year, it shouldn't cut into my writing. In fact, it may actually help, I've found that my best ideas come from not paying attention in school.**


	12. Trade Secret

**Bonus points if you caught the reference in the summary. **

**I'm not dead, hurray! It has been around a month since I have updated, and I several excuses for that. I've been playing a lot of Warcraft, which I did anyway. But, school has also started. My writing process for short stories is pretty much have a basic idea for a chapter, toy around with that for a while, have a sudden flash of inspiration, and belt out the whole thing in one sitting. I have to be at my computer for this to work, and school seriously cuts into my computer time, so yeah. I wrote down most of the chapter of paper (I need something to do during class), but this actually tends to slow down my writing, since I have to retype it on the comp. Just go with it.**

**And I have quite a few other things going on, but this is Fanfiction not MySpace so I won't be whining and complaining about how much life sucks. No one wants to hear that.**

**So I won't make you wait any longer, story time! **

* * *

**May 26th**

Once a week, Elon Hughlis abandoned his constant ritual of eating, practicing, and admiring himself to restock his large supply of various grooming products. The store he went too was close by, so he would normally just walk the short distance. However, even though it was well out of his way, Elon would still somehow end up at the Altador Stadium every week.

The Cup wouldn't be starting for a couple of weeks, but the Stadium still hosted weekly exhibition games. By an amazing coincidence, Elon's trips were always on the same day as games at the Stadium. Also, by an equally amazing coincidence, he always happened to have a few pens and photos of himself handy.

Elon was on his weekly trip at the moment. To be more precise, he was signing autographs for some of his many fans who had mobbed him when he had entered the Stadium. Elon sighed; greatness demanded such a high price! However, his labor was almost over, there were only a few fans remaining.

"OI! Hughlis!"

Elon turned, searching for whoever had called for him in such a rude manor. He eventually saw a Meerca at a table, waving him over. After a moment, Elon recognized him.

Elon walked towards him. "You're Meridell's new forward, aren't you?" asked Elon. He sat down at the chair opposite the Meerca. "What was your name again?"

"Gregorgio," replied the Meerca. "No need to ask yours, your fame precedes you Hughlis."

Elon found himself warming to Gregorgio. While an objective observer might have noticed the betraying smirk Gregorgio had let slipped during the praise, it had sailed right over Elon's head. Gregorgio wasn't quite sure why he was playing up to Elon, but he decided to see where the decision would take him.

They made small talk, and Gregorgio actually had to reform his opinion of Elon. He was an egotistical prick; there was no question of that. But aside from that, he was almost… likeable.

Well, maybe that was a stretch.

"So what do you think about the new Yooyus they're adding this year?" said Gregorgio, who was shocked to discover that he actually cared about Elon's thoughts on the matter.

"Well, I'm sure they'll add something new, and hopefully exciting, to the game," said Elon. "I don't really like that none of the teams get to practice with them before the Cup."

"You aren't worried that they might be too tough to handle, are you?"

"Bite your tongue!" cried Elon, half serious and half in jest. "I just mean that I wouldn't mind at least one practice session with them."

"Well, too bad there's no way we could get our hands on some of them," contemplated Gregorgio. "We don't even know where they are being held."

Just then, two Skeiths walked by the pair carrying a large crate. Their brown uniforms identified them as workers for the Altador Stadium.

"So dis is 'da last shipment of da new Yooyus for da Cup, eh?" asked one.

"Yeah Frank," said the other. "We'll set them with all the others."

The pair walked out of earshot, and went through one of the doors marked with an "Employees Only" sign.

Elon and Gregorgio glanced at each other, and then ran quickly to the door the two Skieths had gone through. They hurriedly opened it and ran inside, slamming it behind them. The room was simply one big hallway with several numbered doors. Obviously, the two Skieths had gone through one of them, but they had been too late to see which one.

"Any idea which door we should try?" asked Gregorgio. "I've never been in here before."

"Do you think I have?" responded Elon. "Players aren't allowed in here!"

"What happens if we get caught then?"

Elon thought for a moment, and said, "Well… our teams will _probably_ be fined."

"_Probably?_"

"Worst case scenario… we may be suspended."

"WHAT?"

"Quiet!" Elon hissed.

Gregorgio tried to calm down, and failed. He tried again, with no better result. He settled for lowering his voice. "What the hell is wrong with you! Why didn't you tell me we might get suspended, I never would have done this otherwise!"

"We won't get suspended if we don't get caught!" said Elon, although he still looked nervous. "Besides, if I recall correctly, the security at the Stadium is horribly lax."

To prove his point, Elon went to a random door and flung it open. Both of their faces went pale.

Inside the room there was total darkness, save for one light bulb that hung above a single table. At the table were five Grundos with very large blasters playing cards. No one had seemed to notice them.

Elon slowly closed the door. "Wrong door."

"I suppose they've stepped up security a notch."

* * *

Joshua looked haggard. With the Cup about to start, the Altador Cup Committee had their hands full with preparations. One of the most important of these was retrieving the Altador Cup (the physical trophy, not the event) from last year's champions, the Haunted Woods. 

Joshua wasn't sure why he had been sent, as opposed to some flunky. He had protested, but Amy had insisted that only someone with his status could be trusted with the safety of the Cup.

Well having status was all well and good, but it might as well have been nonexistent for all the good it had done him. The Haunted Woods team had grudgingly handed over the Cup, but Joshua was sure the only reason they hadn't locked him in a coffin was because everyone would know they did it.

The inhabitants of the Haunted Woods were, if possible, worse. He had had to deal with everything from overzealous sheriffs taking the Cup as evidence to thieves looking to make a quick buck to crazy shotgun wielding grandmothers. And then there was that stick business with Count Von Roo…

But Joshua had gotten past the villains, the crazies, the threatened lawsuits, and had managed to convey the fragile Cup back to the safety of the Altador Stadium. He turned the Cup over in his hands and sighed. It was finally over.

The door slammed open, and Joshua jumped, losing his grip on the Cup. He leaped for it, but it was too far gone. The Cup hit the floor, and smashed into hundreds of pieces.

At the same moment, Elon and Gregorgio walked through the door, each holding a large and wriggling sack.

They all froze, each of them caught in their wrong doing. Finally, Joshua tried to take control of the situation. "What the hell are you guys doing here?"

Gregorgio looked at Elon, who had turned white as a sheet. No help there. "Well…" began Gregorio, trying to come up with a solution. "What the hell are _you_ doing here?"

Joshua rose to his full height and tried to sound intimidating. "I'm a member of the Altador Cup Committee! I can be anywhere in this building if I so choose!"

Gregorgio pretended to be shocked, he had already known this and had been stalling for time. He knew he had a little more time, and started looking around the room for inspiration.

Joshua's eyes moved to the sacks the two players carried. Gregorgio could almost see the logic in his head being formed. "You two were trying to steal the new Yooyus weren't you? According to Rule 572A, that's a two month suspension!"

Joshua had made up the punishment on the spot, and he had no idea what Rule 572A actually was, or what punishment it required. It doesn't really matter, but Rule 572A actually states, "There is to be no eating of Spyders within a 100 yard radius of the Yooyuball field on Tuesdays."

Elon somehow turned whiter than before, and began to stammer incoherent syllables. Gregorgio ignored him; he was too busy looking for inspiration. He saw a glint on the floor, and noticed the shattered pieces of the Cup on the ground. He relaxed, they were saved.

"I wouldn't suspend either of us, if I was you," said Gregorgio.

Worry flashed on Joshua's face, but he quickly covered it up. "Oh? And why not?"

"With one phone call, everyone in Neopia will know that some idiot named Joshua destroyed the Altador Cup with his clumsiness. The crown jewel of the Altador Stadium, the priceless gold trophy, destroyed!"

"No one will believe you!" cried Joshua, not even bothering to try and deny it.

"Oh, sure they will. All you have to do to prove me wrong is show someone the Cup. And I'm afraid," continued Gregorgio, nudging one of the larger pieces with his foot, "That you wont be able to do that, now will you?"

They all stood there for a few moments. Eventually, Joshua gulped and asked, "So, what happens now?"

Gregorgio pretended to think. "Well, how about this? I know a blacksmith who knows how to keep a secret. I'll just take these fragments of the Cup and have him make another one out of them. In return, we walk away from here, and everyone shuts up about this whole thing."

Joshua sighed. "Okay, I guess that's the only thing we can do."

"And we get to keep the Yooyus!" said Elon, finally speaking up now that he saw a way out.

Joshua looked like he was going to protest, but thought better of it. He nodded.

Gregorgio swept up the fragments into the bag containing his Yooyus, and Joshua led them to the back entrance of the Stadium and let them out.

Once they were well on their way back to their respective hotels, Gregorgio started to laugh hysterically.

Elon turned and looked at him, confused. "What's so funny?" he asked. "I mean, I'm happy that we got out of there too, but you sound like you've heard the funniest joke in the world."

Gregorgio eventually stopped laughing and addressed Elon. "Well, my blacksmith friend happens to be myself actually, I know quite a lot about different metals."

"Go on," said Elon, curious.

"Well, when I grabbed the pieces of the Cup, I noticed…"

* * *

Joshua headed back to the Committee Chambers, where he knew Drake and Amy would be waiting to hear news of the Cup. He had his story straight, he knew exactly what he would say. There was no way he would reveal his secret under any kind of examination. 

He entered the Chambers, and Drake and Amy looked up from their paperwork. "Hello Joshua," said Drake. "How was your-"

"OKAY, OKAY!" screamed Joshua. "You wore me down! It was ME! I destroyed the Cup!!"

Drake and Amy shared a glance. "Joshua," said Amy. "Calm down and tell us what happened."

Joshua told them the whole story, too ashamed to even look at them. When he finally finished, he looked up, expecting them to be furious. In reality, however, both Drake and Amy had been trying to hold in laughter, and at the end of the story, they finally dissolved into fits of hilarity.

Joshua was confused, and a little angry. "What is so funny!"

"Joshua," gasped Amy, still laughing. "You are so idiotic it's unbelievable."

"What are you talking about?"

Drake reached down and unlocked a large drawer underneath his desk. From it, he pulled out…

"The Cup!" cried Joshua. "But how?"

"To ensure the safety of the Cup," began Drake. "We made an exact replica of it. Every year, we give the winning team that replica instead of the real thing. Everyone thinks it's real, so no one ever had a problem with it."

"Why didn't anyone tell me about this?"

"Plausible deniability. Send a letter to this Gregorgio person saying that he doesn't have to bother bringing us another fake, I have about six extras in my basement."

"You mean we aren't going to suspend them?" said Joshua, miffed.

"No, I don't feel like doing the paperwork," said Drake, pointing to his stack. "I already have way too much."

"But could you make sure that you don't blow any major secrets this year Joshua?" asked Amy, returning to her paperwork. "That would be great."

* * *

"But wait," said Elon. "What do we tell our teammates about the Yooyus? They are going to want to know how we got them." 

Gregorgio chuckled. "Just tell them it's a trade secret."

* * *

**DigiTayl- Romance is another thing I don't like writing about very much, but I thought it might be worth a shot. Glad you liked it. **

**AuroraBorealis14- I'm still considering on just making the Maraqua arc a separate story. My plan right now is to finish up with Confessions, and then go back and edit all of the chapters. The Maraqua arc is my favorite, but the only thing I could really add to my plan of how the arc is going to go would be some of Jair's perspective while she is with Roo Island. I do have one chapter planned that way, but I don't really want to do too much more than that. Well, I'll figure it out when I get there.**

**The ACC hasn't been around in a while, so I thought they needed to come back. They'll pop back in every now and then, but I'm pretty sure they wont get any more full chapters. Of course, I might suddenly think of an idea and write it, but I've got nothing else for them at the moment. I know what I'm doing next chapter, but then I might have to dip into some of the ideas that I couldn't get off the ground.**

**And I will update this story again. It may take a while, but it will eventually be updated.**

**Oh yes, I forgot something. That other story I'm working on is going to be a novelization(is that the right word) of the Meridell plots. Now normally I would just post this and surprise everyone, but I have a serious problem.**

**I can not think of a title.**

**I don't mean like I couldn't think of a title for this story. I know I can do better than the "Confessions" title, but it works. I can't think of anything for this story. And when I day anything, the only thing I can think of is The Meridell War. And I refuse to call it that.**

**So once again, I'm going to have to ask people for a title idea for the story. The first chapter is done, and since it isn't a bunch of short stories I may actually decide to hold on to it until it's finished(which might be a long time, BTW).  
**


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